Chinese stocks gained on stronger-than-expected economic growth to end 2016, but overall, Asian shares were again logging generally modest declines amid continued investor caution ahead of U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The world’s No. 2 economy grew 6.8% last quarter from a year earlier after three straight increases of 6.7% — which economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected to be repeated again. The full year’s 6.7% growth was the least for China since 1990.
But signs of stability in China augur well for the region, which has been suffering from tepid global demand.
As China’s data were in line with expectations, that may mean there won’t be any fiscal stimulus from the government, cautioned Andrew Sullivan, managing director of sales trading at Haitong International Securities. “We’re going to see that tightening bias continue.”
But elsewhere in the region, caution ahead of Trump’s inauguration continued to keep traders on the sidelines.
