China's weak Q3 casts pall over most of Asia-Pacific

THURSDAY'S developments - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson striking a Brexit deal with the European Union and Wall Street posting strong earnings - could have guided sentiment towards a positive end to the week.

Instead, growth issues were the chief concern after China's Q3 gross domestic product (GDP) print missed estimates, hitting its weakest reading since 1992 as growth slowed to 6 per cent. The figure is on the weaker end of the government's 2019 forecast of 6.0 to 6.5 per cent.

On Friday, the Straits Times Index (STI) opened 0.1 per cent lower, and built on losses during the session to close at 3,114.16, skidding 11.98 points or 0.4 per cent.

Despite the market having been sent on another roller coaster ride this week, the blue-chip index was little moved from last Friday's close of 3,113.97.

Among other Asia-Pacific indices, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea finished lower. The Shanghai Composite Index had its worst showing in a month after the bleak GDP data release, shedding 39.19 points or 1.3 per cent to end at 2,938.14. On the other hand, Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend on gains made by tech companies.

The Chinese growth print may have disappointed, but for what its worth, the other Chinese economic data releases of the day - industrial production (IP) and retail sales - beat expectations. IP continued to be driven by infrastructure spending, and retail sales, by essential-item purchases.

AxiTrader Asia-Pacific market strategist Stephen Innes said of Friday's data dump: "While risk assets aren't flashing all green, markets can heave a sigh of relief. At least for (Friday), markets have dodged a massive macro bullet out of China."

With Chinese fiscal stimulus through measures such as infrastructure projects set to be a central pillar of growth in Q4, and despite uncertainty over the trade war, ING Greater China economist Iris Pang has raised the bank's forecast for the Oct-to-Dec quarter from 5.8 per cent to 6 per cent.

In Singapore, trading volume stood at 1.18 billion securities, in line with the daily average from the first nine months of 2019. Total turnover clocked in at S$901.80 million, 85 per cent of the January-to-September daily average.

Across the market, decliners beat advancers 208 to 150. Nineteen of the blue-chip index's 30 counters ended in the red.

Thai Beverage was the STI's most active counter, with 26.3 million shares traded. The food and beverage player added 2.5 Singapore cents or 2.9 per cent to 90 cents.

Keppel Corp fell S$0.13 or 2.2 per cent to S$5.84 after announcing on Thursday that third-quarter net profit fell 30 per cent to S$159 million from a restated S$227 million a year ago on the absence of divestment gains.

Singapore's banking trio ended lower. DBS Group Holdings was S$0.16 or 0.6 per cent lower at S$24.78; OCBC Bank dipped S$0.11 or 1 per cent lower to S$10.74. United Overseas Bank closed at S$25.82, down S$0.20 or 0.8 per cent.

Among telcos, Singtel edged down one Singapore cent or 0.3 per cent to S$3.15; StarHub rose one Singapore cent or 0.8 per cent gain to S$1.29.