Most Asian stocks higher after Japan GDP revision; Nikkei up 3.05%

Investing.com - Most Asian bourses rallied to start the new week as traders appeared to focus more on Japan’s bullish first-quarter GDP revision than on a slew of tepid Chines data points.

In Asian trading Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.05% after Japan revised its first-quarter GDP reading to show growth of 4.1%. The initial reading was 3.5% growth.

In a separate report, the Ministry of Finance said that Japan’s current account balance rose to a seasonally adjusted JPY850 billion from JPY340 billion in April. Analysts expected an increase to JPY390 billion.

The Shanghai Composite was closed for a public holiday, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.50% following the release of several important Chinese data points.

After a crackdown by Chinese officials on manipulators that use currency conversions to boost export data, Chinese exports showed an increase of just 1% last month. Exports to the U.S. and European Union, China’s two largest export markets, declined for a third consecutive month.

Imports fell 0.3%, well below the expected 6% increase. China's consumer inflation dropped to 2.1%, below the expected reading of 2.5%, while producer prices fell 2.9%. Analysts expected PPI to drop 2.5%. Retail sales rose 12.9%, which met expectations.

Fixed-asset investment and industrial production also met analysts’ expectations with year-over-year gains of 20.4% and 9.2%. China’s M2 money supply rose 15.8%, but that was below the expected 15.9% increase. New loans totaled 667.4 million yuan, but that missed expectations of 850 billion yuan and down from April's 792.9 billion yuan.

Those data points sent the Australian dollar tumbling against its U.S. rival, but Australian markets are closed today in observance of the Queen's Birthday public holiday.

New Zealand’s NZSE 50 rose 0.61%, perhaps a surprise given that like Australia, New Zealand counts China as its largest trading partner.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.31% while Singapore’s Straits Times Index advanced 0.87%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.09%. The benchmark U.S. index added over 2% in the last two sessions last week.