Asia Pacific share market crept higher in last session of 2018, Monday, 31 December 2018, as hints of progress on the Sino-U.S. trade standoff provided a rare glimmer of optimism in what has been a rough year-end for equities globally. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2%, but was still down 16% for the year.
Survey data out of China, however, proved unhelpfully mixed with manufacturing activity contracting for the first time in two years even as the service sector improved. China's manufacturing sector fell further into the contraction mode in December, National Bureau of Statistics said. The bureau reported the country's manufacturing PMI score was down to 49.4, from 50.0 in the previous month. The bureau also said its non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 53.8, up from 53.4 in the previous month. As a result of the two scores, the bureau's composite index came in at 52.6 - down from 52.8 a month earlier.
Sentiment had brightened just a touch when U.S. President Donald Trump said he held a very good call with China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday to discuss trade and claimed big progress was being made.
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