An employee works at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 13, 2022.
Toru Hanai | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares in the Asia-Pacific are trading lower Thursday as investors await the results of a private survey on China’s factory activity.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.98%, and the Australian dollar weakened to $0.6811.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.54%, and the Topix index dropped 1.3%.
The Kospi in South Korea shed 1.53% and the Kosdaq lost 0.9%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 1.1% lower, and in mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.17% after opening lower, while the Shenzhen Component also up 0.56%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 1.4%.
China’s Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for August released Thursday showed the sector slipping into contraction this month.
This comes after official manufacturing PMI data released on Wednesday showed that factory activity shrank amid a recent rise in Covid infections, and the nation facing the worst heatwaves in decades.
Overnight in the U.S., major stock indexes rose earlier in the session, but closed lower for a fourth straight day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 280.44 points, or nearly 0.9%, to 31,510.43. The S&P 500 slipped roughly 0.8% to end the day at 3,955, and the Nasdaq Composite declined about 0.6% to 11,816.20.