Reuters - Asia share indexes rose Thursday as economic data from China was largely more resilient than expected, and as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell said any easing of economic stimulus was still a way off.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4%, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng rising 1.0%.
Mainland China shares were little changed with the CSI300 index little changed.
China's second quarter economic growth fell just short of forecasts on an annual basis, with gross domestic product growth slowing to 7.9% from a year earlier from a record 18.3% expansion in the January-March period. But seasonally adjusted growth of 1.3% on the quarter in April-June was slightly better than expected.
Monthly data for June, including retail sales, industrial output and fixed investments, showed growth softened but not as much as expected, adding to views that politicians and government officials may do more to support the recovery.
Earlier in the day, China's central bank partially rolled over maturing, one-year medium-term lending facility loans, injecting 100 billion yuan ($15.46 billion).
Around 1 trillion yuan in long-term liquidity was also released into the financial system from Thursday after the People's Bank of China last week said it would cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.
"On the whole the PBOC is loosening but it is not flooding the banking system like the (U.S.) Fed does. And today's economic data wasn't that bad," portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein Masahiko Loo said.
Japan's Nikkei, however, headed in a different direction. It fell 0.9% on worries of rising domestic Covid-19 infections.
Wall Street shares were mixed, with the S&P ending 0.12% higher and Nasdaq down 0.22%.
In testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Powell said the U.S. economy was "still a ways off" from levels the central bank wanted to see before tapering its monetary support.
He was confident recent price rises were associated with the country's post-pandemic reopening and would fade.
His comments came after data published this week showed consumer prices increased by the most in 13 years in June while producer prices accelerated to the largest annual increase in more than a decade.
Powell assured markets the Federal Reserve is not too hawkish about taming inflation, chief rates strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities Chotaro Morita said.
Bond yields dipped worldwide with the 10-year U.S. Treasurys yield slipping to 1.336% - having peaked out at 1.423% Wednesday.
The yield on inflation-protected bonds, sometimes called the real yield, dropped below minus 1.0%, staying near its lowest levels since February.
"Given declines in bond yields started before Powell's speech, the market was probably driven more by short-covering and unwinding of underweight positions than Powell's comments per se," SMBC Nikko's Morita also added.
In the currency market, Powell's low-interest-rate stance put a dent on the U.S. dollar.
The euro bounced back to $1.1826 from Wednesday's three-month low of $1.1772. The dollar was at 109.88 yen after a 0.6% fall Wednesday.
The yuan dipped to 6.4693 per dollar in Asia after hitting a three-week low of 6.4508 overnight.
Gold jumped to a one-month high of $1,829.8 per ounce Wednesday and last stood at $1,826.1.
Oil prices eased after significant producing countries came to a compromise about supply and after U.S. data showed demand slacked off a bit in the most recent week.
U.S. crude futures dropped 1.0% to $72.40 per barrel while Brent futures lost 0.8% to $74.18 per barrel.
