Shares in Asia mixed as China heads for long holiday next week

Asian shares were mixed on Friday with investors keeping tabs on local data sets and noting an expected outcome for the Caixin China manufacturing PMI. 

 

The Nikkei 225 fell 1.55%, while the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.80% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.08% ahead a major holiday period starting next week. 

 

The Caixin manufacturing PMI for September came in at 50.1 as expected with holidays in China next week in focus going forward. "The readings for the manufacturing PMI over the past three months seem to indicate that the economy has begun to stabilise," Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at Caixin said. Get live News Updates visit us at Ripples Advisory or One Missed Call on @98-27-80-80-90 

 

But Zhong cautioned that an increasingly strained fiscal budget could pose a risk to sustainable growth. "Given that the growth rate of fiscal income has slowed recently while expenditures have swung, there is insufficient momentum to drive future economic growth, and there is a risk that industrial output may decline." 

 

The official China manufacturing PMI for September from the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing will be released on Saturday and came in at 50.4 in August which was the highest since October 2014.