Asian stock markets hit by fall in Chinese manufacturing data

Asian stock markets slipped yesterday following the release of a survey, which showed that Chinese manufacturing fell in April for the fourth straight month, AP reported.

The results of the HSBC purchasing managers' index showed Chinese factory activity stood lower than a preliminary reading, leading to fears among investors that the slowdown in the world's second biggest economy was entrenched, the report said.

Andrew Sullivan, director of Asian sales trading at Kim Eng Securities, said there was a lot of concern about slowing again.

He added, people were in general expecting from the recent data that the market was stabilising rather than slowing.

He added, this would seem to indicate that it was still slowing rather than stabilising.