Asia report: Most markets higher as Chinese data fails to impress

Most Asian markets ended higher on Friday, as traders turned a blind eye to a deluge of vanilla data in Chinese data as oil prices soared and US markets finished at record levels.

Traders in Japan came off the mountains and back into their offices, having had the day off for Mountain Day on Thursday, with the Nikkei 225 adding 1.1% to 16,919.92.

Japan Petroleum was particularly buoyant as oil prices rose, gaining 1.87% during the session.

Technology giant Toshiba was up 3.79% after it said its first quarter results were “close” to what the Nikkei reported.

It eventually released the results after markets closed, with operating profit for the three months through June at JPY 20.1bn - a swing from the JPY 6.5bn loss a year ago.

Competitor Sharp saw its shares rocket 19% after Chinese regulators approved a multibillion takeover offer from Hon Hai Precision Industry - better known as Foxconn.

The yen was weaker against the greenback during the session, and was last off 0.11% to JPY 102.07.

Markets advanced on the mainland, with the Shanghai Composite closing 1.61% higher at 3,051.02, and the Shenzhen Composite adding 1.16% to 1,973.66.

Fresh data out during the day showed China’s industrial output grew 6% year-on-year in July, falling just short of consensus expectations for a 6.1% rise.

Retail sales in the People’s Republic grew 10.2% in the month, again coming in short of forecasts for a 10.5% rise.

The country’s fixed asset investment growth scaled back to 8.1% year-on-year for the year so far, shy of the market’s 8.8% pick.

“In once again printing not far from forecasts and still at levels many other economies can only hope for, disruption to markets was almost non-existent,” noted CIBC strategist Patrick Bennett.

In Korea, the Kospi added 0.08% to close near flat at 2,050.47, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished up 0.83% at 22,766.91.

South Korean software firm Naver, which develops the Line messaging app - popular in the region - closed up 0.51% after Nomura started coverage of the stock with a ‘buy’ rating.

Markets were also focused on the rollercoaster that has been oil prices this week, with crude futures extending earlier gains during Asian trading, before quickly falling off again as Europe took the baton.

Brent crude was last down 0.37% at $45.87, while West Texas Intermediate was flat at $43.49 per barrel.

Sentiment on the sticky black stuff was particularly high during US hours, after Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid al-Falih suggested OPEC could consider taking “action” if oil prices remained stubbornly low.

OANDA Asia Pacific senior trader Stephen Innes said the minister’s words appeared to send the markets into a “froth”.

“In another case of deja vu, and despite signals pointing to a potentially enormous bulge in crude stocks for 2017, there appears to be no taming of the oil market bull when OPEC speaks.”

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 finished 0.42% higher at 5,530.90, being boosted by energy stocks as oil prices rose.

Santos was up 3.96% by the end of the trading day.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 added 0.1% to finish at 7,363.10, led higher by specialty dairy exporter A2 Milk, which added 4.4%.

The gains came after A2’s supplier Synlait Milk reported a more-than-doubling in annual profit to almost NZD 35m.

Non-index firm Synlait saw its share price rise 7.8%.

After making some serious gains on Thursday, both of the down under dollars were weaker against the greenback at the end of the week, with the Aussie 0.23% behind at AUD 1.3018 and the Kiwi losing 0.2% to NZD 1.3897.