Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares down 1.1 pct on soft China data, miners drag

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Australia shares down 1.1 pct on soft China data, miners drag Apr 15th 2013, 02:26 Tweet Share this Email Print Sun Apr 14, 2013 10:26pm EDT (Adds details, comments, stocks on the move) SYDNEY, April 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell 1.1 percent on Monday, after soft data out of China, Australia's biggest export market, added to worries about the global growth outlook, with miners hit hard following a sharp drop in commodities prices. China's economic recovery unexpectedly stumbled in the first three months of 2013 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 percent from the 7.9 percent pace set in the final quarter of last year, official data showed on Monday. "Commodities are a bit soft with the fact that Chinese data has been really really choppy. Choppy Chinese data is always going to hurt the commodities base," said IG Markets strategist Evan Lucas. The S&P/ASX 200 index had lost 53.430.7 points to 4,960.1 by 0210 GMT. The benchmark edged up 0.1 percent on Friday. Investors are increasingly worried about signs of softening global growth after the Unites States released disappointing retail sales on Friday, which followed the previous week's downbeat jobs data, said Credit Suisse equity strategist Damien Boey. "US data continues to surprise to the downside. Some people are thinking maybe the US recovery is not all well-grounded," Boey said. "That is why people continue to rotate out of mining companies and into banks and other bond-proxies," he added. Miners, which were hit by weaker commodities prices, extended their losses following the disappointing China data. Top miners BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd both lost around 4.0 percent. The weak China GDP data will be especially worrying after investors had been primed for an upside surprise versus the consensus of 8 percent. Australia is particularly sensitive to the growth cycle in China, which is its top export market and big buyer of its resources. Banks managed to hold up, bouncing back from earlier losses, led by the country's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia adding 1.1 percent. Australia's leading telco company Telstra Corp Ltd gained 0.9 percent. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index edged up 0.7 points to 4,436.5. STOCKS ON THE MOVE * Gold miners were particularly hard hit after gold prices sank on Friday. Australia's biggest gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd plunged 6.7 percent to A$18.22, the lowest since October 2008. (0130 GMT) * Property company Mirvac Group gained 1.0 percent to A$1.70, after it said QBE Insurance Group has signed an agreement to lease at 8 Chifley Square in Sydney. (0127 GMT) (Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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