SHANGHAI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - China stocks closed higher on Wednesday, following the tariffs reprieve from Washington, but gave up much of early gains as bleak data rekindled worries over the country's' economic health.
The blue-chip CSI300 index ended 0.5% higher to 3,682.40, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 2,808.91.
Both the CSI300 and SSEC rose as much as 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed off his Sept. 1 deadline for 10% tariffs on remaining Chinese imports, delaying duties on cellphones, laptops and other consumer goods, in the hopes of blunting their impact on U.S. holiday sales.
Meanwhile, China reported a raft of unexpectedly weak July data on Wednesday, including a slump in industrial output to more than 17-year lows, pointing to further slowing in the economy as the U.S. trade war takes a heavier toll on businesses and consumers.
Activity in China has continued to cool despite a flurry of growth measures over the past year, raising questions over whether more forceful stimulus may be needed, even at the risk of increasing its debt.
"China's economy needs more stimulus because the headwinds are pretty strong and today's data is much weaker than consensus," said Larry Hu, head of Greater China economics at Macquarie Group in Hong Kong.
Consumer stocks provided some momentum, led by market bellwether Moutai scaling a new high, on hopes Beijing would further boost domestic consumption to shore up growth.
Around the region, MSCI 's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.57%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.98%.
At 07:15 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 7.0142 per U.S. dollar, 0.59% firmer than the previous close of 7.0558.
About 14.40 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 92% of the market's 30-day moving average of 15.66 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 13.09 billion.
As of 07:16 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 32.69% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. (Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom)

Sumber : reuters.com