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Shanghai - China’s stocks capped their biggest weekly gain in a month after official manufacturing data matched forecasts and a gauge of services activity perked up.
The Shanghai Composite Index posted a weekly advance of 2.7% as it added 0.1% on Friday. Materials companies rose while a measure of health-care companies fell.
China’s manufacturing purchasing managers index for June stood at 50, the line dividing improvement from deterioration, and the non-manufacturing PMI gauge rose to 53.7 from 53.1 in May, data showed on Friday.
While China’s central bank has kept its main rates at a record low since October, leaving the onus on the government’s fiscal measures to underpin growth, some analysts say it has room for more measures.
Asian stocks headed for their best week since April as investors bet central banks will limit the fallout from the UK’s vote last week to leave the European Union.
"China’s central bank may have ammunition, like targeted loosening moves, to release liquidity at a mild pace," said Wu Kan, a fund manager at JK Life Insurance in Shanghai.
"Investors believe global policy makers reserve contingency measures to deal with Brexit."
The Shanghai Composite closed at 2 932.48, while the CSI 300 Index was little changed. The Shanghai gauge climbed 0.5% in June, posting its first monthly gain since March and offering some respite to a market that ranks among the world’s worst-performing over the past twelve months.
Hong Kong’s stock market was shut for a holiday.
Expectations that a plunging euro and rising political uncertainty in Europe will hurt demand for Chinese products is boosting speculation the People’s Bank of China will take steps to ease monetary policy.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Standard Chartered and Commerzbank all say the nation will probably lower banks’ reserve requirements as soon as July, while one-year interest-rate swaps, a gauge of rate expectations, fell the most last month since April 2015.
Caixin PMI
A private manufacturing index showed activity at the nation’s factories has yet to pick up. The PMI gauge fell to 48.6 in June, compared with an estimate of 49.2, the result of a separate survey by Caixin Media and Markit Economics showed on Friday.
China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical dropped the most in two weeks to pace declines for a measure of health-care shares.
Shandong Gold Mining jumped 4.9% to its highest close since October 2012 as gold prices headed for a fifth weekly gain.
Anhui Conch Cement, the nation’s biggest manufacturer of the building material, retreated 0.8%. The company’s plan to acquire West China Cement fell apart, as conditions including government approval weren’t met by a June 30 deadline, the two companies said in a joint statement.
