Asian markets settle mostly lower on weak Chinese data

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Monday after the world’s second-largest economy recorded slow growth in both factory output and retail sales and missed expectations in July, while worries about worsening coronavirus infections in the Asian region also dampened market sentiments. Japanese shares ended lower due to concerns of slow economic growth following the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19, while stronger yen also fuelled selling. However, Chinese shares ended marginally higher after China's central bank, PBoC injected 600 billion yuan ($92.63 billion) in medium-term loans into the financial system and keeping the interest rate unchanged for the 16th month in a row. Meanwhile, the Korean market was closed due to the national holiday, Liberation Day.