Robust earnings reports helped buoy the region's equity markets as investors largely shrugged off further signs of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing growth.
The Shanghai Composite index rose 1.3 per cent to a two-and-a-half-month high of 2,672.52, leaving it up 13 per cent from a 2010 low struck early in July, amid continued hopes for easier monetary policy in the months to come.
Those hopes appeared to be bolstered by news that the official Chinese purchasing managers' index had fallen to a 17-month low in July, while an alternative PMI index prepared by Markit/HSBC – generally viewed as more accurate – dipped below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction. “The latest PMIs provide further evidence that China's economy is slowing, increasing the likelihood that policy will be loosened during the next few months,” said Mark Williams at Capital Economics.