The pace of China’s manufacturing sector slowed in October and Asian stocks reacted to the news by moving in and out of the red throughout the trading day.
October showed more steam than any month in the last six years and China’s central bank helped push the yuan to its strongest amount against the U.S. dollar in more than 10 years. The currency stood at 6.3154 to the dollar Monday, up 0.5% since Friday’s fix and representing the strongest percentage change since July 2005.
According to data released on Sunday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 49.8 for October, contracting for a third straight month and unchanged from the previous month.
The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, a private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity which shows private enterprises over and above the official reading, rose to 48.3 in October, marking the eighth-straight month of contraction and up from 47.2 in September. Any reading above 50 is an indication of activity expansion while one below that level signals contraction.
Markets Down
Shanghai shares initially rose as much as 1.8 percent following remarks over the weekend by regulators aimed at calming the market, but the index was last down 0.8 percent after weaving in and out of the red.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.7 percent after dropping earlier in the session in reaction to the August U.S. jobs report Friday which failed to indicate a future interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve and generating a slide on Wall Street.
Japan's Nikkei was down 0.1 percent after hitting a 7-month low. South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.2 percent and Australian stocks shed 0.7 percent.