MissChu to close London store; Economic data points to slowing Chinese economy: Midday Roundup

There’s more bad news for MissChu, with the collapsed Vietnamese food chain revealing its London outlet is closing, despite the company previously claiming its Melbourne and London stores were not affected by its current troubles.

The news comes after administrators KordaMentha recently revealed the company owes more than $4 million to creditors.

MissChu founder Nahji Chu broke the news to customers in a statement posted on the company’s official Facebook page, while also thanking them for their support.

“Your patronage over these past few weeks in Sydney has meant that the business will not be put into liquidation (assets sold and shut down for good),” Chu said.

“The London store has been shut down for good. The international license will be sold to the best bidder.”

Economic data points to slowing Chinese economy

China has missed its 7.5% annual growth target for the first time in 15 years, according to new economic figures, leading economists to fear growth is slowing in the world’s second-largest economy.

The BBC reports China’s economy expanded by 7.4% last year, down from 7.7% a year earlier.

The property market in particular was badly hit, slowing to a five-year-low of 10.5%, which was just over half the 19.8% growth rate recorded a year earlier.

However, factory output and retail sales both beat analysts’ expectations, coming in at 7.9% and 11.9% respectively.

The growth rate for the December quarter came in at 7.3%, also slightly better than analysts had predicted.

Shares up on open

Aussie shares have had a strong start to today’s session, despite a relatively flat session on Wall Street overnight.

Andrew West, director of Quay Equities, said the gains on the local market were unexpected.

“The Australian sharemarket has had a surprising bounce to the start of the day, with one of its strongest performances of 2015 as our beaten down resources sector bounced back to lead the index higher,” West said.

“We had expected a flat open on the back of a little changed Wall Street market and ahead of the European Central Bank meeting tomorrow.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was up 63.3 points to 5371 points at 11.53am AEDT. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed 3.66 points higher, up 0.02% to 17515.2 points.