Investing.com – Asian stocks rose on Monday despite disappointing GDP and industrial production growth data in Japan and falling motor vehicles sales in Australia.
Japan’s cabinet office reported on Monday that country’s GDP grew by only 0.3% in the quarter ending in December, same as in the previous quarter but against the expected rise of 0.7%.
The YoY GDP in Japan also rose only 1% against the expectation of 2.8% and previous rise of 1.1%. The YoY GDP price index fell 0.1% against a forecast of a 0.2% fall. In the previous year it fell 0.3%.
According to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry country’s industrial output for December rose 0.9% against the expected rise 1.1%, as it was in November.
Earlier the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the new motor vehicles sales in January dropped by 3.5% against a rise of 1.4% in December.
In Japan Daiwa Securities Group rose 2.2%, Mitsui Fudosan was up 0.9% while Rakuten fell 8.3% after it missed earnings forecasts.
Nikkei rose 0.27%, Shanghai rose 0.53%, Hang Seng rose 0.94% while S&P rose 0.35%.
On Friday, in the U.S. the preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index remained unchanged at 81.2 for February, beating expectations for a fall to 80.6, which drew applause on Wall Street.
Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. industrial production fell 0.3% in January, defying expectations for a 0.3% rise after a 0.3% increase the previous month, though equities market shrugged off the news and blamed it on rough winter weather.
Data also showed that U.S. import prices rose 0.1% last month, confounding expectations for a 0.1% downtick after a 0.2% rise in December.
While economic indicators have come in hit-or-miss this year, many went long on stocks betting that the second quarter will bring more robust economic data.