Most Asian markets gain as China reports growth in its services sector

Most Asian stock market indices were trading higher on Monday (6 February), with the Shanghai Composite up 0.30% at 3,149.49 as of 5.26am GMT. This followed China reporting that its services sector remained robust in January.

On Monday, the China Markit/Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI) was reported to be 53.1 in the first month of 2017. While this was marginally lower than December's reading of 53.4, it still indicated expansion in the country's services sector.

This comes just weeks after China's manufacturing surveys also reported positive data for January. The data struck a positive note with investors and increased their confidence in the world's second largest economy.

Commenting on the same, Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group said, "The economy continued to recover, but the expansion rate has slowed. Meanwhile, inflationary pressures continued to build up as prices increased further."

Zhong was, however, not too optimistic about the near future. He was quoted by Reuters as saying, "The economy is unlikely to maintain the pace of expansion seen in the fourth quarter of last year given that the manufacturing sector's willingness to restock has declined. China's economic growth may decelerate after the first quarter of this year."

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 5.38am GMT:

On 3 February, the FTSE 100 Index closed 0.67% higher at 7,188.30, while the S&P 500 index closed 0.73% higher at 2,297.42.

Among commodities, oil prices gained after US imposed fresh sanctions on some Iranian entities, which suggested there could be a decline in total crude output. As of 12.36am EST, WTI Crude Oil was up 0.32% at $54.00 (£43.22) a barrel, while Brent Crude was trading 0.28% higher at $56.97 a barrel.