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China stock market
MoneyStock Talk

China’s March export data gives Asia stock investors welcome surprise despite coronavirus

  • China says exports drop 3.5 per cent in March – far less than expected
  • Hong Kong, Stock Connect reopen after two-day holiday; Asia stocks broadly gain

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A man walks in the rain past an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 and other Asian countries' stocks at a securities firm in Tokyo on April 13, 2020. Photo: Associated Press
Deb Price,Gigi ChoyandKathleen Magramo

Asia-Pacific stocks gained Tuesday, getting a boost from better-than-expected China trade data for March, despite half of the world’s population being under lockdown and China’s factories then only partly fired back up.

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The Hang Seng Index finished 0.6 per cent ahead, as Hong Kong trading resumed following a two-day holiday.

New economy stocks outperformed, including Ali Health, which jumped 6.8 per cent, and Ping An Good Doctor, which shot up 5.1 per cent. Meanwhile, oncology drugmaker Beigene gained 4.8 per cent after announcing one of its drugs received marketing approval by Beijing to treat patients with advanced or metastatic cancer of the urinary system.

The Shanghai Composite Index ran up a 1.6 per cent gain, rallying on the trade data, which showed China’s exports declined 3.5 per cent in March compared with March 2019, while imports rose 2.4 per cent, according to yuan data out of the General Administration of Customs. Economists had predicted a 12.8 per cent decline in exports and a 7 per cent fall in imports, according to Bloomberg.
Investors weighed what’s ahead on the virus front as global infection cases of the coronavirus neared 2 million. They also are bracing for corporate earnings that will offer additional insights into the pandemic’s economic wreckage.
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