Nikkei 225 drives Asia rebound, shrugs off softer Chinese data

The Japanese traders returned to markets and cheered positive close on the US and European stocks yesterday, triggering a minor-rebound in its Asian peers on the final trading day of this week.

Moreover, the oil-price rebound also lifted the utilities and energy stocks higher, providing some support to the region’s indices. Further, markets appears to have ignored slightly softer Chinese macro updates for July, including the industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment data.

The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 jumps +0.72% to 16,856. The Australian markets also track its Asian peers higher, with the S&P/ASX 200 now trading +0.21% at 5,520 points.

The Chinese equities traded modestly flat in wake of poor China data dump, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index up +0.11% just ahead of 3k mark; the CSI300 index trades +0.05%. While Hong Kong markets gain +0.62% to 22,720 levels.