Singapore — Asian stocks set a fresh two-year high on Monday, boosted by stronger than expected economic growth in China and bets that lacklustre US data will keep the Federal Reserve cautious about the pace of further policy tightening. Chinese blue-chips recouped steep early losses after data showed the world’s second-largest economy grew at a slightly faster than expected pace of 6.9% in the second quarter, thanks to robust industrial output, retail sales and exports. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended earlier gains to climb 0.4% after the buoyant China readings. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. Australian shares, which started the day in negative territory, were 0.1% higher, while South Korea’s Kospi jumped 0.4%. By midday in China, the CSI 300 was 0.2% higher, after slumping as much as 2.2% earlier. The Shanghai Composite narrowed earlier losses of as much as 2.6% to trade 0.1% lower. Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore...
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