Asian markets: China Shanghai Composite gains amid positive March inflation data

While Asian stock market indices traded in a mixed pattern, China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.85% at 3,040.21 on Monday, 11 April at 5.48am GMT. Positive March inflation data released by China before its stock markets opened aided the sentiment.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care, increased 2.3% in March on a year-on-year basis. This was also lower than a Reuters forecast of 2.5%.

The Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure that indicates the average change in prices received by domestic producers for their output, declined 4.3% in March when compared with March 2015. While this indicated a 49th consecutive month of decline, the pace was slower than in February.

Markets in the rest of Asia were primarily down. This was because of Japanese data which indicated that the country's core machinery orders declined 9.2% in February when compared with January. This showed that that business investment continued to be subdued.

Andrew Meredith, co-managing director at Tyton Capital Advisors, said: "While February's machinery orders fell less than anticipated, Japan markets remain weighed down by a strengthening yen and uncertainty surrounding when, or if, the Bank of Japan will intervene."

Indices in the rest of Asia traded as follows on 11 April at 6.00am GMT:

Country	Index	Price	Up/Down	%Change
Hong Kong	Hang Seng Index	20,440.51	Up	0.34%
Japan	Nikkei 225	15,720.12	Down	0.64%
South Korea	KOSPI	1,969.82	Down	0.11%
India	CNX Nifty	7,550.50	Down	0.06%
Australia	S&P/ASX 200	4,930.40	Down	0.15%

Last week on Friday (8 April), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,576.96, up 0.20%, while the FTSE 100 closed higher by 1.10% at 6,204.41.

Among commodities, oil prices saw an uptick after US data indicated a drop in the country's crude stockpiles. This spurred hopes that there could be an end to the global supply glut of the commodity. While WTI crude oil was trading 0.20% higher at $39.80 (£28.18, €34.88) a barrel, Brent was up 0.26% at $42.05 a barrel on 11 April at 6.10am GMT. This overcomes the warning issued by Standard Chartered earlier in the year.