Investing.com – Asian equities fell in afternoon trade on Tuesday after China reported weaker-than-expected April investment and retail sales data.
Fixed asset investment in China rose 7% in the first four months of 2018 from a year earlier, compared to the general consensus of a 7.4% gain, official data showed on Tuesday, suggesting that the country’s economy might be losing steam.
Meanwhile, retail sales grew 9.4% from a year earlier, compared to the estimates of 10.0%. Property sales growth also softened to 1.3% in January-April, down from 3.6% in January-March, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.
On the other hand, industrial production output gained 7.0% in April, the NBS said, outperforming the general consensus of 6.4%.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component both slipped 0.2 by 1:30AM ET (05:3AM GMT) after opening slightly higher in the morning session, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.9%.
Reports that China’s top economic official Liu He has arrived in Washington on Tuesday also garnered some attention, as Liu is scheduled to have trade talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that would run until Saturday. Reports suggested that Liu might be ready to offer U.S. companies easier access to Chinese markets.
The news came after the U.S.’s request of a more precise timetable on when and how China would open up its markets, as U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad said on Tuesday that the two countries are still "very far apart" on resolving trade frictions.
"The Chinese have said 'we want to see the specifics.' We gave them all the specifics in terms of trade issues. So they can't say they don't know what we're asking for," he said.
"We're still very far apart," Branstad said, saying that China has not met pledges to open up its insurance and financial services area, as well as reduce auto tariffs.
"There are many areas where China has promised to do but haven't. We want to see a timetable. We want to see these things happen sooner or later," he said at a conference in Tokyo.
Reports on Monday also suggested that China and the U.S. were close to agreeing a deal that would lift the ban on ZTE (HK:0763). In return, the U.S. requested China to remove tariffs on billions of dollars of agricultural products.
Meanwhile, MSCI on Tuesday unveiled the list of 234 China A shares to be added to its relevant global and regional indexes in June.
The index giant added 11 companies and removed nine from its MSCI China A inclusion index, according to a statement.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.1% and South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.7%. The Reserve Bank of Australia released its meeting minutes and noted there was not a "strong case" for a near-term adjustment in monetary policy. The Bank has been holding on its dovish stance to keep rates at 1.5% since August 2016.