Biz China Weekly: PMI, shares, sharing economy

BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key business news from the past week:

PMI

Fresh snapshots of China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors showed a more positive outlook on the economy despite a seasonal dip in factory activities.

The country's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 49.2 in February, narrowing from 49.5 in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The sub-index for production, a major factor used in calculating PMI, edged down 1.4 points to 49.5 in February, while the sub-index for new orders rose to 50.6, an indication of expansion.

The non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 54.3 this month, which means the non-manufacturing sector remained within the expansion range, NBS data showed.

BOOMING SHARES

Major stock indices in China experienced a bullish gaining during the past week with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surging 6.77 percent and the Shenzhen Component Index bulging 5.97 percent.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board, saw a blockbuster growth of 7.66 percent.

Global index provider MSCI said it plans to increase the weight of China A-shares in its indexes, by raising the inclusion factor to 20 percent in three stages this year, from the current 5 percent.

SHARING ECONOMY

China's burgeoning sharing economy grew 41.6 percent year-on-year in 2018 to 2.94 trillion yuan (439 billion U.S. dollars).

In the coming three years, the market value of China's sharing economy will expand by an average rate of 30 percent, according to a report released by the State Information Center.

Last year, 77 percent of the 2.7 million riders of China's online food delivery services platform Meituan were from rural areas, with 670,000 coming from poverty-stricken counties, according to the report.

From 2015 to 2018, the revenue of the online food delivery sector saw a remarkably average annual growth of 117.5 percent, which was 12.1 times the growth rate in the traditional catering sector, the report said. Enditem