Most Asian markets ended higher, today. So, China's Shanghai Composite index gained 0.8 per cent after data showed that retail sales in China rose 17.7 per cent in April from a year earlier. Although they fell short of forecasts for a jump of 24.9 per cent, industrial output matched expectations with a rise of 9.8 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang index rose 0.6 per cent; Singapore's Straits Times index advanced 0.8 per cent. But Japan's Nikkei-225 index declined nearly 1 per cent as worries over the slow pace of the domestic vaccination drive overwhelmed a boost from solid gains in Wall Street shares. And South Korea's Kospi index lost 0.6 per cent.
 
In Europe, key indices were trading lower as underwhelming Chinese data and a resurgence of COVID cases in some Asian countries outweighed optimism over the reopening of the British economy. London's FTSE-100 had declined 0.6 per cent, France's CAC-40 had lost 0.4 per cent and Germany's DAX had fallen 0.3 per cent in intra-day trade.