Asia climbs on upbeat Chinese data

Asian stock indices opened the second session of the week higher following earlier strong data from Japan, bolstering risk appetite in the market. 

Earlier New Zealand data showed building permits rose 2.8%, while an index tracking business sentiment in Australia and New Zealand fell to minus 63.5 from minus 19.4. 

From China, services and manufacturing PMIs showed improvements in March after plummeting to record lows in February due to lockdown measures to contain the virus last month. 

Earlier Japanese data showed the unemployment rate at 2.4% last month as expected, while retail sales rose 0.2% in February. 

Japan's industrial output rose 0.4% in February, slowing down from 1% in January. 

Japan's Housing starts fell 12.3%, sharpening a 10.1% drop in January. 

US President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion stimulus package to counter the impact of coronavirus, while extending social distancing guidelines to April 30. 

The World Health Organization reported 697,000 cases of Covid 19 in 203 countries and regions, with the death toll at 33,257. 

Japan's TOPEX rose 0.29%, while Nikkei 225 climbed 0.78% to 19,233. 

China's CSI 300 added 0.81%, while Shanghai added 0.59% to 2,763. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.57%, while South Korea's KOSPI rallied 2.2% to 1,754. 

New Zealand's NZX 50 powered up 2.56%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.4% to 5,254.