TOKYO, Apr 1: Asian shares and the euro fell on Monday with exchanges closed in several Asian markets, including Australia and Hong Kong, as well as in Europe for Easter holidays.
But China’s March factory output ran at its fastest in 11 months, producing a reading of 50.9 on the official manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) published on Monday, below 52.0 in economists’ forecasts but still signalling economic recovery may be accelerating.
A private survey also showed on Monday an expansion in factory activity, with the final HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rising to 51.6, roughly in line with a flash reading of 51.7 and up from February’s 50.4.
The pick-up was led by a big rise in new orders, the second largest in 26 months. In contrast, new export orders barely grew in March. China’s economy is pulling out of its worst downturn in 13 years, but the rebound has been uneven as unsteady U.S. And European demand for Chinese exports have impeded growth.
‘While the rebound of sub-indices appears broad-based, it is still much lower than the average gain seen in past years,’ ANZ said in a research of the Chinese PMIs. ‘Meanwhile, average Q1 PMI is very close to the level in Q4 and only slightly higher than the benchmark level of 50, suggesting that the growth momentum has been stabilizing, but headwinds remain.’
Business sentiment in Japan improved in the first three months of 2013 thanks to mounting expectations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s aggressive reflationary policies to beat deep-rooted deflation and steer the world’s third-largest economy back on to a growth trend.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent, with South Korean shares falling 0.5 percent and Shanghai easing 0.1 percent.
The Australian dollar was down 0.2 percent to $1.0387, showing limited reaction given the absence of Australian investors. China is Australia’s largest trading partner and Australian markets tend to move on Chinese economic indicators.
Elsewhere, South Korean exports last month barely grew from a year earlier while inflation unexpectedly eased to a 7-month low on weak domestic demand, data showed on Monday, reinforcing expectations for a central bank rate cut as early as next week.
The HSBC Taiwan Purchasing Managers’ Index for March rose to 51.2 from February’s 50.2, while manufacturing activity in Indonesia rose in March and new export orders increased during the month, a HSBC’s Markit survey showed.
Later in the day, Markit’s U.S. Final manufacturing PMI for March and the Institute for Supply Management’s March manufacturing index will be released.
Analysts have said a growth trend in the U.S. Is crucial to maintain global risk-positive sentiment as an outperformance in U.S. Equities on the back of solid U.S. economic reports has helped drive global shares and other risk asset prices generally higher in the first quarter.
In Japan, investors kicked off the country’s new fiscal year by taking profits in Japanese stocks, sending the Nikkei stock average down 0.9 percent to a two-week low after it posted its best quarterly performance in nearly four years.
Expectations for strong monetary stimulus measures to be announced by the Bank of Japan at its meeting on April 3-4 under the new leadership have supported Japanese equities and underpinned the dollar against the yen.
The BOJ’s closely-watched tankan quarterly survey showed on Monday that business sentiment improved in the first three months of 2013.
The dollar was likely to be choppy leading up to the BOJ’s meeting with speculators looking to book profits after the rally over the past several months.
‘The cap on dollar/yen for now is removed, with repatriation flows related to Japan’s fiscal year-end completed at the end of March, so speculators will be looking to build long dollar/yen positions leading up to the BOJ meeting,’ said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo, adding that the euro remained top-heavy.
The dollar was down 0.2 percent to 94 yen, having touched a 3-1/2-year peak of 96.71 earlier in March.
The euro was down 0.3 percent at $1.2799, hovering near a four-month low of $1.2750 touched last week.
The euro was pressured with Italy struggling to break a political stalemate lasting more than a month after elections and Cyprus imposing heavy losses on large bank deposits, fuelling concerns about a spillover of its banking system instability to other parts of the euro zone.
Sentiment was also be weighed by concerns about growth in China as the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday that Beijing and Shanghai will implement strict property cooling measures as part of a central government crackdown on the overheated property market.
Shanghai copper futures fell to their lowest level in more than eight months of 53,800 yuan ($8,700) a tonne, pressured by China’s measures against a property sector bubble and by a weak euro.
U.S. Crude futures fel 0.5 percent to $96.78 a barrel while Brent eased 0.4 percent to $109.56.
(agencies)
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