Asian Stocks Fall After HSBC China Manufacturing Drops
Asian stocks outside Japan fell for the first time in nine days after a private gauge of Chinese manufacturing dropped more than economists forecast.
The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index slid 0.8 percent to 509.13 as of 2:23 p.m. in Hong Kong, with two shares falling for each that rose. The measure closed yesterday at a more than six-year high.
“China is still in a recovery mode, but the momentum has slowed,” Wang Tao, a Hong-Kong based head of China economic research at UBS AG told Bloomberg TV.
The preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics was at 50.3 in August, trailing all 22 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists and missing the 51.5 median forecast. The measure dropped from July’s 51.7 and was at a three-month low. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.
Source: bloomberg
