Strong economic data from Europe and Asia, but Asian stocks plunge

The news from Europe yesterday was mostly good. From Bloomberg:

An index measuring sentiment among French manufacturers increased to 108 in April, the highest since March 2001, Paris- based statistics office Insee said today. German industrial production rose 1 percent in February after gaining a revised 0.4 percent in January, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said.

And mortgage lending in the UK remains strong.

The BBA said underlying mortgage lending rose by 5.4 billion pounds in March, the biggest increase since June 2004 when the British property market was at its peak, and up from a 4.7 billion pound rise in February.

It was also well above the average of 4.9 billion pounds over the previous six months...

BBA data also showed that consumer credit, personal loans and overdrafts and credit card lending all fell in March compared with February...

Figures released at the same time from the Building Societies Association showed the value of mortgage approvals -- loans agreed by not yet advanced -- surged 29 percent from a year ago to 4.672 billion pounds.

And even the slowing UK retail sales turned out to be better than expected.

The Office for National Statistics said on Monday that sales rose 0.7 percent in March after a downwardly revised 0.3 percent increase in February, putting them up 2.6 percent on the year.

The monthly rise was more than double analysts' forecasts but for the first three months of 2006 as a whole retail sales fell 0.7 percent from the previous three months -- the first drop and the weakest outrun since February 2005.

Today, the good economic news continues in Asia.

South Korea's economy expanded 1.3 percent in the first quarter as the nation's exports accelerated and consumer spending increased.

Growth was faster than the 1.1 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 12 economists, and compared with 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Exports rose 2.6 percent and private consumption gained 1.2 percent, the central bank said in a statement today in Seoul...

From a year earlier, the economy expanded 6.2 percent in the three months to March 31, the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2002, the central bank said.

But investors were obviously looking ahead yesterday and didn't like what they saw, as three of Asia's biggest stock markets saw nasty falls on the back of rising oil prices and stronger currencies.

	21 April close	24 April close	Percent change
Nikkei 225	17,403.96	16,914.40	-2.8
Hang Seng	16,912.15	16,705.67	-1.2
KOSPI	1,451.31	1,430.94	-1.4