Asian shares mostly down after China data

HONG KONG, Jan 20 (AFP): Asian markets were mostly lower on Monday, after China released data showing the economy in 2013 recorded its slowest growth rate for more than a decade.
The losses came after a broadly negative lead from Wall Street, while Japanese gaming giant Nintendo briefly lost almost a fifth of its value following a forecast last week that it would see a net loss this fiscal year.
Tokyo fell 0.59 per cent, or 92.78 points to 15,641.68, Sydney lost 0.21 per cent, or 10.9 points, to close at 5,295.0 and Shanghai ended 0.68 per cent, or 13.70 points, lower at 1,991.25.
Hong Kong closed 0.88 per cent lower, giving up 204.40 points to 22,928.95.
However, Seoul rose 0.48 per cent, or 9.30 points, to 1,953.78. China said in the morning that its economy grew 7.7 per cent last year, the same as 2012, which was the slowest since 1999. Gross domestic product expansion for the October-December quarter also came in at 7.7 per cent, the National Bureau of Statistics said, from 7.8 per cent in the previous three months.
The bureau said the economy "showed good momentum of stable and moderate growth" but it warned of "deep-rooted problems" including a mountain of local authority debt.
UOB Kay Hian analyst Fan Zhang told Dow Jones Newswires: "We see more downside pressure for China's economic growth in 2014, mainly due to tight monetary policy, rising funding cost and slow recovery of demand."
That was supported by Wendy Chen, Shanghai-based analyst for Nomura International, who told AFP: "Judging from the data, our outlook for 2014 remains that China's economy will continue slowing down in the first half."
In Japan Nintendo's share price dived 18.43 per cent at one point in response to its announcement Friday that it expects a loss of 25 billion yen ($240 million) in the year to March, reversing an earlier 55 billion yen net profit forecast. The firm managed to claw back some of the losses and ended down 6.14 per cent.