By DANIEL INMAN
Asian stocks were lower Thursday, amid concerns over the withdrawal of the Federal Reserve's bond buying program and fresh fears about China's manufacturing sector.
The downbeat sentiment was fuelled by HSBC's preliminary China manufacturing data for June that came out at 48.3 compared to a final reading of 49.2 in May, the lowest level for the measure in nine months. A score below 50 indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 2.2% and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index plunged 2.5%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.9%.
The impact of the manufacturing data was felt further afield, with the Australian dollar falling to US$0.9269 after its release, while the S&P/ASX 200 extended its earlier fall to 2.1%.
Also weighing sentiment in China was a liquidity squeeze that is leading to cautious lending by domestic banks. On Wednesday, the benchmark interbank lending rate rose to its highest level in two years.
"There are no signs that the tightness in the money market will ease soon," said Zeng Xianzhao, an analyst at Everbright Securities .
Chinese bank stocks listed in Hong Kong took made hefty declines. China Construction Bank fell 3.7% and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 2.7%.
The session started with stocks lower after the Fed concluded its long-awaited policy meeting overnight, upgrading their assessment of the U.S. economy. Although the central bank took no immediate action, the suggestion of a timeline to start rolling back its bond-buying program by the year-end triggered a selloff in U.S. stocks.
The U.S. dollar hit a one-year high against the Philippines peso and the Malaysian ringgit, which were last at PHP43.23 and MYR3.1957 to the dollar.
The dollar jumped 1.2% against the yen overnight, and was a tad higher in Asian trading - recently at ?96.65 compared with ?96.47 late Wednesday in New York.
Gold also weakened after the Fed meeting. The precious metal was recently down 0.4% at $1,346.60 an ounce.
Japanese stocks shrugged off the weakness in the yen and joined the regional selloff, with the Nikkei Stock Average down 1.1%, the index's first significant fall since it dropped 6.4% last Thursday.
"The signal that the Fed seeks to start weaning markets off its bond purchases, and has set a tentative timeline struck some players as a negative, offsetting the currency benefit," said Kenichi Hirano, market adviser at Tachibana Securities.
Selling was broad-based in Tokyo, with exporters among major decliners. Nikon Corp. dropped 4.8% and Komatsu Limited fell 4.3%.
Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.8% and Philippines PSEi Index dropped 3%.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
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