China's manufacturing expanded for the first time in three months as output and new orders climbed, adding to signs the world's second-biggest economy is rebounding after a seven-quarter slowdown.
The Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to 50.2 in October from 49.8 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing.
A separate survey from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics was at an eight-month high.
Shanghai's benchmark stock index rose the most in three weeks as the reports added to evidence of a pickup in expansion this quarter after industrial production, exports and retail sales accelerated in September.
The data may also reduce pressure on outgoing premier Wen Jiabao to roll out more stimulus measures during a once-a-decade power handover that begins with a Communist Party congress next week.
"The worst is behind us already," Joy Yang, chief China economist at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong, said. "Monetary policy has already done its job" and there's "no way we will see another interest-rate cut because we think inflation is going to rebound".
China's economy expanded 7.4 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace in three years.
Bank of America in Hong Kong, this week raised its estimate for fourth-quarter growth to 7.8 per cent from 7.5 per cent while Nomura Holdings projects a rebound to 8.4 per cent.
Bloomberg
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