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Chinese shares were choppy Tuesday as investors tried to make sense of a fresh injection of liquidity into the Chinese financial system and disappointing factory activity data.
The People’s Bank of China late Monday cut the amount of money banks have to hold on reserve by 0.5 percentage point to 17%, freeing up an estimated 700 billion yuan ($107 billion) for banks to make more loans and prop up the slowing Chinese economy.
The stimulus came before data on Tuesday showing that manufacturing activity in China contracted more severely from January to February than economists expected. The official purchasing managers’ index fell to 49 in February from 49.4 the month before. An unofficial gauge, the Caixin China general manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, fell to a five-month low of 48 in February.
Early Tuesday, Chinese stock investors appeared unsure how to react to the stimulus that is designed to combat the kind of sluggish economic activity seen in the manufacturing data. The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +1.68% opened roughly flat, then wavered between small losses and gains. It was last up 0.4% at 2697.70.
Traders were focused on the yuan, which strengthened in the freely-traded offshore market to 6.5444 per U.S. dollar. The gain occurred immediately after China fixed the midpoint of the yuan’s trading band stronger in the regulated onshore market.
Markets elsewhere in Asia were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average NIK, +0.37% was last down 0.8% after Japanese corporate profits booked their first drop in four years last October to December. An unofficial gauge also showed Japan manufacturing growth slowed to the worst pace in eight months.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.04% was up 0.6%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.85% was slightly up ahead of an interest-rate decision from the Reserve Bank of Australia, which was expected to hold rates at 2%. Korean markets were closed for Independence Movement Day.
Brent crude oil prices were last down 0.6% at $36.37 per barrel.
