Asian shares were mixed on Thursday, with Chinese shares leading losses as several major markets resumed trading after the New Year holiday.
China’s Caixin/S&P Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for December fell to 50.5, missing economists’ forecast of 51.7 in a Reuters poll. The PMI was 51.5 in November and 50.3 in October.
The decline in the PMI figure indicates that “the pace of growth has slowed since November and is generally marginal,” the report said.
“Exports have been subdued due to demand amid rising uncertainties arising from the overseas economic environment and global trade,” said Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group.
The official PMI for December, released on Tuesday, was 50.1 and missed expectations.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 briefly fell over 3%, while the offshore yuan gained 0.14% to trade at 7.3224 against the dollar, recovering some ground after hitting its lowest level since October 2022 on Tuesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost more than 2.4 percent. Shares of Sun Art Retail Group fell over 23%, a day after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced the sale of its majority stake in the hypermarket chain. Alibaba fell over 1%.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell slightly to close at 2,398.94 while the Kosdaq added 1.24% to 686.63. Markets are open one hour later than usual, due to the grand opening for the new year.
Rhee Chang-yong, the country’s central bank governor, said in a New Year’s speech on Thursday that monetary policy will be “managed flexibly and agilely” given the “unprecedented rise in political and economic uncertainties”, SEEbiz reports.
The Bank of Korea, which has made consecutive interest rate cuts — the first since 2009 — is scheduled to announce its next interest rate decision later this month.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.52% to end at 8,201.2. Markets in Japan will remain closed until the end of this week.
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