Asian markets: China Shanghai Composite gains following positive Wall Street close last week

All Asian stock market indices were trading higher, with China's Shanghai Composite Index up 2.51% at 2,881.87 on Monday, 14 March at 5.28am GMT. This follows a positive close on Wall Street and Footsie last week after the European Central Bank cut interest rates.

China also gained over data released over the weekend. On the downside, the data indicated that manufacturing output for January and February increased at its slowest pace since 2008, while retail data showed that sales rose but also at their slowest pace since May 2015.On the upside, however, fixed-asset investment, which is considered a crucial driver of the economy, increased 10.2% in January and February year-on-year.

Angus Nicholson, market analyst at IG Markets said: "China looks to be returning to a very familiar investment and real estate-driven growth pattern, somewhat at odds with their claims of economic rebalancing."

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor at the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said over the weekend that it will not provide excessive stimulus to boost the economy and would instead remain flexible enough to react to an economic shock.

Indices in the rest of Asia traded as follows on 14 March at 5.37am GMT:

Meanwhile, last week on Friday (11 March), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,213.31, up 1.28%, while the FTSE 100 closed higher by 1.71% at 6,139.79. Among commodities, WTI crude oil was trading 0.21% lower at $38.42 (£26.72, €34.43) a barrel, while Brent was up 0.2% at $40.47 a barrel on 14 March at 5.48am GMT.