Apr 16, 2026, 11:56 GMT+7
By Summer Zhen
Reuters - China and Hong Kong stocks advanced on Thursday, as better-than-expected first-quarter economic growth data lifted sentiment.
** China's blue-chip CSI300 Indexclimbed 0.9% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Indexrose 0.5%.
** Hong Kong benchmark Hang Senggained 1.4%; Hang Seng TechIndex jumped 3%.
** China's economy picked up in the first quarter with gross domestic product rising 5%, 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. Cloud computing,telecommunications and artificial intelligence - related stocks jumped more than 3%.
** Xu Jie, fund manager at 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.
** On the geopolitical front, Israel is considering a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, while U.S. President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could end soon.

Sumber : Reuters