Asian stocks dive as sentiment sours on China PMIs

By FXStreet FXStreet (Mumbai) – Stocks on the Asian bourses kicked-off the week on a bearish note, and witnessed some heavy selling on the back of the negative Wall Street lead and mixed Chinese manufacturing PMI reports.

Official data released over the weekend also showed that China’s factory activity shrunk in October for a third straight month. The latest survey from Caixin on Monday showed that China’s PMI stood at 48.3 in October, beating forecasts for a reading of 47.6.

Nikkei sinks on stronger yen amid persisting risk-off

The Japanese stocks led their Asian counterparts lower and remains heavily sold-off as the dismal China’s PMI readings soured sentiment once again and triggered fresh bouts of risk-aversion across the board. As a result, the yen benefited the most versus the US currency, which weighed on the exporters’ stocks. Meanwhile, USD/JPY trades -0.23% lower at 120.34 and the Nikkei tanks -1.87% to 18,725.

The Australian benchmark, the S&P/ASX also followed suit and drops -1.20% to 5,175, shedding its value as steep losses in the banking stocks drag the index lower. While investors were unimpressed by the building consents data from Australia, which beat expectations of 1.8% and stood at 2.2% last month.

However, the Chinese …read more

Source:: FX Street