WEAK CHINA DATA DENTS ASIAN MARKETS

Here is an article culled from WSJ 23/11/2011 that I thought the readers of this Blog would find useful:

-WEAK CHINA DATA DENTS ASIA MARKETS

Most Asian share markets ended with sizable losses Wednesday after poor manufacturing data from China added to worries about global growth.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 2.1% to 17864.43 and China's Shanghai Composite Index swung from mild gains to finish down 0.7% at 2395.06.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 index ended down 2% at 4051.0, while South Korea's Kospi fell 2.4% to 1783.10. Japan's markets were closed for a holiday.

HSBC's preliminary "flash" version of its monthly manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index for China showed a reading of 48.0 for November, indicating a contraction, compared with a mildly expansionary 51.0 in October.

"It's not a great number," said Michael Turner, strategist at RBC Capital Markets. "China is really a key part of the global-growth mix for next year.... If China starts to show signs of weakness then you have to question where the growth is going to come from."

Qu Hongbin, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC, said in a statement, "Growth is set to overtake inflation as Beijing policy makers' top policy concern. As Vice Premier Wang Qishan reiterated recently, securing a well-balanced economic recovery for China against an increasingly grim global growth backdrop is key."

Asian markets also continued to take cues from Europe, with Nomura economist Stephen Roberts saying the key issues on the Continent "are whether there is some medium-term plan and whether it's going to improve over time, which is where it is all a bit cloudy at the moment."

Further adding to the downbeat sentiment, the U.S. revised its third-quarter economic growth downward Tuesday, to 2% from 2.5% previously, which helped send U.S. stock indexes lower.

Against this background of global economic concerns, banks traded weaker in Hong Kong, with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China down 2.8%, Bank of Communications lower by 3.8%, Agricultural Bank of China losing 4.1% and Bank of China falling 2.9%.

Australian financials also lost ground, with National Australia Bank dropping 3.3% and Macquarie Group ending 2.6% lower.

Resource shares suffered, as commodity prices fell, with oil, platinum and aluminum futures all lower in electronic trading. In Hong Kong, Jiangxi Copper fell 3.8%, Cnooc traded down 3.2% and Aluminum Corp. of China lost 4.1%.

Miners were the worst performers in Australia, with Rio Tinto losing 3.4%, BHP Billiton falling 3.1% and Fortescue Metals Group surrendering 6.1%.

In Hong Kong, shares of PCCW. fell 3.3% after the company priced an initial public offering of its telecom trust at the bottom of its indicative price range.

Over in Seoul, Hyundai Steel dropped 5.9% after Moody's late Tuesday revised the company's ratings outlook to negative, while Hynix Semiconductor. retreated 6%, Samsung Electronics fell 2.9% and Woori Finance Holdings finished down 3.3%.