Asian markets rise on China trade data, Nikkei kills weekly winning streak

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell again on Friday, -1.80% , putting an end to the weekly winning streak that was lasting for 12 weeks. However, most Asian equity indexes moved higher: Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.23%), China's Shanghai Composite (+0.51%), South Korea's Kospi (+0.99%), India's Bombai Sensitive (+0.26%) rose on Friday. Investors cheered China's trade data, with both imports (25.0% vs 17.0% consensus) and exports (28.8% vs 23.3% consensus) coming in higher than expected in January, as well as the trade surplus (29.2B vs 22.0B consensus).

Futures for the German DAX 30 (+0.32%) and the French CAC 40 (+0.40%) are signaling a higher opening ahead of Italian industrial output and French Budget figures. The German trade data is out with wider than expected surplus (€16.8B vs €14.8B consensus) and current account (€17.3B vs €17.0B consensus). December (MoM) exports (+0.3% vs +1.3% consensus) and imports (-1.3% vs -1.4% consensus) disappointed.