Asian shares sink as China says 1Q growth at 4.8%

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly lower in Asia after China reported Monday that its economy expanded at a 4.8% annual pace in January-March.

Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Taipei and Shanghai. Seoul edged higher. Hong Kong and Sydney were closed for holidays. Oil prices rose and U.S. futures were lower.

Wall Street benchmarks declined last week before closing for the Easter holiday.

China’s growth has fallen well below the official target of 5.5% for 2022. In quarterly terms the economy grew 1.3% in the first quarter, compared with 1.4% in the last quarter of 2021.

Authorities have ordered shutdowns in some major cities including Shanghai to battle the country's worst outbreaks of coronavirus since it flared into a pandemic in March 2020. But the biggest impact of the shutdowns will likely be seen in the current quarter.

“Lockdowns are going to affect data for the whole of April, and maybe even longer as more cities are also adopting measures to bring COVID under control," ING Economics researchers said in a note.

The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.7% to 3,190.48. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.2% to 26,760.31 while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.1% higher to 2,699.09. India's Sensex dropped 2%.

Bangkok and most other regional markets declined, while Jakarta was higher.

As trading resumes Monday in many world markets, attention is focused on Ukraine, where Ukrainian fighters were holding out against a capture of their shattered city of Mariupol after a 7-week siege, ignoring a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia.

The fall of Mariupol would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.

Ukraine was sending top officials to Washington for this week’s spring meetings of the...