HONG KONG: China and Hong Kong stocks advanced on Thursday with the Shanghai Composite rising for a fifth consecutive day, as better-than-expected first-quarter economic growth data lifted sentiment.
At the close, China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 1.1 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent.
Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng went up 1.7 percent, marking its third consecutive day of gains; Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 3.7 percent.
China’s economy picked up in the first quarter with gross domestic product rising 5 percent, beating market expectations.
But Beijing warned of a “complex and volatile” environment as the Iran war jacks up energy prices and hits global demand.
Tech stocks led the rally. Telecommunications stocks jumped 4.2 percent, while cloud computing and artificial intelligence-related stocks jumped more than 3 percent each.
Xu Jie, fund manager at Shanghai’s Yuanzi Investment Management, said the strong first-quarter economic data is “certainly a good thing” for the market and that China was breaking from the downward trend observed in the second half of last year.
For the first three months, the positive shock dominated with China’s exports rising at the fastest pace since 2022, Macquarie economists led by Larry Hu said in a note.
“In the months ahead, however, the negative impact from the Iran crisis could be more apparent, as higher oil prices could squeeze corporate margins and weigh on global demand,” they added.
Hopes for a resolution to the Middle East conflict have also fuelled risk appetite across Asian markets.
Israel is considering a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, while US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could end soon.
The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 1.8 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 3.167 percent.
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