(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- China’s better-than-expected economic data for November, released today, was unable to shake the gloom hanging over the country’s stock markets this morning as the Covid-19 death toll in the US mounts, raising concerns about the global economy.

The Shanghai Composite Index had slipped 0.45 percent by lunchtime to 3,354.02, while the Star 50 Index, which follows tech stocks on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market, dropped 1.1 percent to 1,359.98.

The Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.15 percent by noon to 13,672.05. The ChiNext Price Index, which tracks growth enterprises listed in Shenzhen, managed to nudge up 0.23 percent to 2,732.91.

Last month, China’s value-added industrial output rose 7 percent from a year earlier, fixed-asset investment was up 2.8 percent and investment in real estate grew 6.8 percent to CNY12.95 trillion (USD1.9 trillion), all much better than expected, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

On the other side of the Pacific, though, there were more than 16.38 million cases of the novel coronavirus in the US and over 300,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data released at 3:55 p.m. yesterday.

Editor: Kim Taylor