Star Metro - Stock markets mostly drop as China data falls short

Investors were awaiting the reopening of Wall Street after a long holiday weekend in the United States.

The dollar strengthened after some recent weakness as traders expect the Federal Reserve to pause its hiking of interest rates, while oil prices retreated.

A report Tuesday showed China's services sector grew last month at a much slower pace than expected.

"The recovery in China's services sector, or even consumption, is ongoing but not as strong as people had expected," said Larry Hu of Macquarie Group.

"People are not very optimistic about their future income due to the economic woes, and so they tend to save more."

Hong Kong's stocks index closed down more than two percent -- though struggling mainland developers including Evergrande and Sunac soared.

Shanghai was also well in the red.

There were losses in Sydney as the Australian central bank held interest rates for a third successive meeting, while Seoul, Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta were also off.

There was little reaction to reports that struggling developer Country Garden had paid interest on its dollar-denominated bonds, avoiding a messy default, but with the firm's cash woes showing no sign of ending as more loans must be serviced in coming weeks.

Recent announcements out of Beijing have helped lighten the mood on trading floors after months of dour data indicating the country's post-Covid recovery has hit a wall.

Sentiment was also helped by a positive US jobs report on Friday, which was seen as giving the Federal Reserve room to stand pat on monetary policy after more than a year of interest rate hikes aimed at cooling decades-high inflation.

Wall Street was closed Monday for a holiday, providing no fresh catalyst for other markets.

- Key figures around 1100 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,463.46 points

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 15,802.61

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,258.95

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,274.86

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 33,036.76 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.1 percent at 18,456.91 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,154.37 (close)

New York - Dow: Closed for a public holiday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0742 from $1.0790 on Monday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2556 from $1.2621

Dollar/yen: UP at 147.22 yen from 146.45 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 85.55 pence from 85.50 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $85.28 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.7 percent at $88.36 per barrel

Y.X. Gagnon--SMC