Shanghai stocks soar more than 5% on better than expected PMI data

Shares in Hong Kong and mainland China soared soon after opening on Monday after the country released its key economic data.

China's manufacturing activity shrank sharply in September as new orders at home and abroad cooled, pulling down factory owners' confidence to near record lows, a private-sector survey showed on Monday.

The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI fell to 49.3 in September from 50.4 the previous month, missing analysts' forecasts in a Reuters poll of 50.5. The reading marked the lowest since July last year.


The traders cheered Beijing's raft of measures aimed at kickstarting the country's stuttering economy, particularly the property sector.

The Hang Seng Index rallied 3.14 percent, or 647.68 points, to 21,279.98.

The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 5.54 percent, or 171.17 points, to 3,258.70, and the Shenzhen Composite Index on China's second exchange climbed 5.18 percent, or 89.99 points, to 1,827.55.

The gains built on last week's surge that came on the back of a series of stimulus measures by China's leadership as it tries to reverse a painful slowdown in the world's number two economy.

In the latest moves, three megacities on Monday eased restrictions on buying homes and Beijing's central bank said it would ask financial institutions to lower mortgage rates, as the country seeks to pull itself out of a housing slump.

Developers soared, with Kaisa rocketing almost 60 percent, Sunac up more than 16 percent and Fantasia piling on more than 30 percent.