China stocks rally 4% as manufacturing contracts less than feared; Japan’s Nikkei falls more than 4%

Stocks in mainland China spiked 4.84% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 4.64% on Monday as investors assessed key economic data from the two countries.

China’s official purchasing managers’ index reading for September came in at 49.8, better than the 49.5 expected by economists polled by Reuters. However, this marked a fifth straight month of contraction for the manufacturing sector in China.

The Caixin PMI survey, which is a private survey compiled by S&P Global, reported that the manufacturing PMI fell to 49.3 from 50.4 in September, lower than the 50.5 expected from the Reuters poll.

The Caixin survey also marked the fastest decline in the sector in 14 months.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.29% following the release.

Separately in Japan, the Nikkei’s decline was led by losses in real estate stocks, while the largest loser on the index was department store holding company Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, down 11%. The broad-based Topix fell 3.3%.

Industrial production in the country dropped 4.9% year on year in August, more than the 0.4% fall in the month before.

On a month-on-month basis, industrial production dropped 3.3%, a sharper decline than the 0.9% expected in a Reuters poll and compared with the 3.1% rise in July

The Japanese yen weakened 0.13% against the dollar, trading at 142.38.

Japan’s August retail sales climbed 2.8% year on year, beating Reuters poll estimates of a 2.3% rise, and up from a revised 2.7% rise in July.

The moves in Japanese markets come as investors digest Shigeru Ishiba’s victory in the Liberal Democratic Party elections last Friday. He will succeed Fumio Kishida as Japan’s prime minister.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.72%, breaching its all-time high of 8,246.2.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.13%, and the small cap Kosdaq slipped 1.21%.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a new high on Friday as traders assessed fresh data that showed to more progress on reining in inflation.

The 30-stock Dow added 0.33%, ending at 42,313.00. The S&P 500 ticked down 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.39%.

This comes as traders assess encouraging August inflation data, which saw the personal consumption expenditures price index — the Federal Reserve’s favored measure of inflation — increasing 0.1%, matching expectations from economists polled by Dow Jones. 

PCE climbed at an annualized pace of 2.2%, below the 2.3% forecast.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Pia Singh contributed to this report.