Asian markets mixed following better-than-expected post-Brexit UK GDP data

While Asian stock market indices were trading mixed on Friday (28 October), the Shanghai Composite was down 0.18% at 3,106.87, as of 6.46am GMT. This followed UK reporting better-than-expected GDP overnight.

The UK said its economy grew by 0.5% over the third quarter of 2016, in the three months after the EU referendum. The Office for National Statistics said service sector activity rose by 0.8%, construction fell by 1.4%, agriculture fell by 0.7% and manufacturing contracted by 1.0%, in its first quarterly assessment post the vote to leave the EU.

While this was down from the 0.7% growth seen in the second quarter, it was better than the market forecast of 0.3% growth. Also, on a year-over-year comparison, the growth came in at 2.3%, up from 2.1% noted over the corresponding quarter last year. This positive and better-than-expected data is said to have helped boost the risk appetite among investors.

"Elevated trading volumes across Asia Pacific region suggest the rotation out of bonds into stocks in ongoing. Bond yields are higher across the region, continuing the sell-off sparked by better-than-expected GDP numbers in the UK [and] some of these proceeds are finding their way into shares," Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets was quoted as saying by CNBC.

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 7.05am GMT:

Overnight (27 October), the FTSE 100 closed 0.41% higher at 6,986.57, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 0.16% at 18,169.68.

Among commodities, oil prices were trading lower despite an announcement to cut production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). According to the Wall Street Journal, Opec members told their Russian counterparts they were willing to cut output by up to 4% from peak output. While WTI crude oil was trading lower by 0.18% at $49.63 (£40.77) a barrel, Brent crude was 0.16% lower at $50.39 a barrel as of 7.16am GMT.