Asia: Stocks helped by Chinese credit data

Most Asian stock markets closed higher on Thursday following a positive surprise in the latest Chinese credit data and a surprise interest rate cut by the South Korean central bank.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.43% while Shanghai composite index finished 1.78% higher.

Credit growth in China accelerated in February to a 13.7% year-on-year pace from 13.5% in the month before.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics said the authorities will "remain reluctant to significantly reverse the progress made over the past year and a half in slowing the build-up of credit risks, particularly given that overall credit growth is still expanding much faster than GDP”.

Shares in the rest of Asia were helped by the news, gaining for the first time this week after being affected by volatile trading in the US.

However, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.52% despite the announcement of its first rate cut in five months.

On Wednesday, Bank of Korea cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.75%. That followed the Bank of Thailand’s surprise 25bp cut.

In other economic news, Japanese tertiary industry index rose 1.4% in January, beating expectations of 0.6% growth. Consumer confidence also increased to 40.7 in February from 39.1 the month before.

Australia's ASX index grew 0.98% thanks to solid jobs data. While full-time employment rose in February to 10,300 after a decrease of 30,900 the month before, unemployment decreased to 6.3% from 6.4%, meeting expectations.

Among stocks in the region, Japanese Nissan Motor gained 2.83% while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 2.47% following news that Chinese lenders will be allowed to act as brokerages. Furthermore, China Construction Bank Corporation was up 3.55%.