source from :http://www.ft.com/intl/markets

GLOBAL MARKET OVERVIEW Last updated: November 2, 2015 9:43 am(London time)
Michael Hunter in London and Patrick McGee in Hong Kong

               
Monday 09.40 GMT. European bourses are weakening and there are losses across Asian stock benchmarks as weak Chinese data set a nervous tone to November trade, after the strong rally seen over October.Concern about the outlook for slowing growth in China and its implications for the world has set the tone on global markets — from the heavy selling over the third quarter, sparked by market turmoil there — to October’s rebound.
Data out at the weekend showed China’s official manufacturing PMI held at 49.8 last month, suggesting a third mild monthly contraction for the country’s economic engine. The non-manufacturing reading ticked down slightly to 53.1.
Meanwhile, Caixin’s private measure of China’s manufacturing sector, released on Monday morning, improved in October to 48.3, from 47.2 a month before. But a score below 50 indicates the sector shrank and by this measure the sector has been contracting for eight consecutive months.
Mining stocks are among those most directly exposed to China, the main destination market for base metals, and are making notable falls. Glencore is down 2.2 per cent at 110.3p in London. BHP Billiton is down 0.6 per cent at ￡10.34.
Overall, the international FTSE Eurofirst 300 is down 0.6 per cent, with the FTSE 100 in London down 0.5 per cent and the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt off 0.5 per cent. The CAC 40 is down 0.7 per cent in Paris.
The falls follow the strong rally over the month of October, helped by a renewed outlook for more stimulus from the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to raise rates in September, in part due to the turmoil in Chinese markets.
The Fed’s thinking on the timing of a US rate rise will be shaped by employment data for October, due out on Friday. The non-farms payroll report will be one of the most closely watched data points published in the run-up to the central bank’s December monetary policy meeting, when the first rate rise since the financial crisis is seen as a possibility.
“Having come off the best month for European markets in six years, it would be easy to think that after the volatility seen since August, that markets appear to have settled down somewhat,” said Michael Hewson, CMC’s chief market analyst.
“This could well be premature in a week where we get the latest snapshot of the US economy, over concerns that the
optimism shown by the US Federal Reserve in respect of the domestic economy may be somewhat misplaced. Friday’s
employment report will be the latest economic signpost as to what the Fed may do next month with respect to a rate rise.”
The declines are steeper in Asia.
The Shanghai Composite is down 1.7 per cent, with the Hang Seng down 1.1 per cent. Tokyo stocks are the biggest losers with the Nikkei 225 down 2.1 per cent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 is 1.3 per cent lower.
In currencies, the US dollar was down 0.2 per cent against a basket of peers, on track for a third straight loss. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.2 per cent to Y120.4 per dollar, helped by its haven appeal.


The unsettled feel to Asian trade also follows a move from China’s central bank moved to bolster the value of the nation’s currency, by strengthening the daily fix by the most for a single day since 2005.The People’s Bank of China set the value of the currency’s mid-rate 0.54 per cent stronger against the US dollar — the largest amount the fix has been reinforced since the renminbi was depegged from the greenback a decade ago.
The move followed the biggest one-day advance for the currency on Friday, when it rose 0.62 per cent in a move traders attributed to central bank intervention to bolster the market mood around the release of a big economic development plan.
In August, when the PBoC devalued the renminbi by about 3 per cent in a week, it said it was responding to market forces and would continue to do so as Beijing seeks to have the renminbi included in the International Monetary Fund’s basket of reserve currencies.
But last month ended on a cautious note, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.5 per cent on Friday in New York, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 ending flat.
“It appears that the manufacturing activity is stabilising, albeit remaining in contraction,” said economists at ANZ. “The indicator has remained below 50 for three straight months since August, reflecting sluggish economic activities.”