Asian shares up after European gains, China data

HONG KONG: Asian markets and the euro rose Tuesday, lifted by a successful French bond auction and gains in European stocks, while confidence was also boosted by better-than-expected Chinese economic data.

However, the eurozone debt cloud continued to hang over trade as Friday's downgrade of nine countries, including France, was followed by a ratings cut for the bailout fund set up to help under-pressure European economies.

Tokyo rose 0.46 percent, Hong Kong shot up 1.71 percent, Sydney was 1.38 percent higher, Shanghai climbed 0.47 percent and Seoul added 1.60 percent.

Investors were cheered by Chinese figures showing the world's second economy grew 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2011, which although slower than the previous three months was better than the 8.6 percent expected.

The figures indicated that while the economy was clearly slowing as a result of troubles in its key export markets of Europe and the United States, it was not having a worrying impact.

The euro was given some early support, rising to $1.2702. It had slumped to as low as $1.2624 in Toronto late Monday. New York was closed Monday for a public holiday.

The single currency also bought 97.64 yen, against 97.25 yen, while the dollar was at 76.81 yen, compared with 76.78 yen.

Asian traders clawed back most of the previous day's big losses that were fuelled by Friday's downgrade of France's triple-A rating by Standard & Poor's as well as that of Austria and seven other nations. It did however hold Germany's top-notch rating.