Signs of resilience in China's slowing economy on Thursday helped end a three-day selloff in world equities prompted by talk the U.S. Federal Reserve could soon wind back its stimulus program.
China's reported its exports and imports had rebounded surprisingly strongly in July, easing fears that a slowdown in the world's second largest economy will threaten the improving outlook in Europe and the fragile recovery in the United States.
However, analysts were cautious about reading too much into the trade numbers, and warned any rebound was unlikely while the government pushes ahead with its policy of shifting the giant economy away from debt-funded investment and manufacturing.
Asian shares outside Japan took a boost from the data, adding 0.8% to recover more than half their previous day's losses.
While the commodity-linked Australian dollar rose 0.9% to $.09073 U.S., copper hit its highest price in nearly two months and Brent oil edged towards $108 U.S. a barrel, snapping a four-day decline.
The Chinese data drove an upsurge in investor appetite for mining and basic resource stocks which took Europe's broad FTSE Eurofirst 300 index up 0.25% by mid-morning.
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