By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks and commodities got 2015's final leg off to a solid start on Thursday after a bruising third quarter, as surveys of Chinese factory activity proved sounder than many global investors had feared.
The Purchasing Managers' Index data nevertheless showed China's vast manufacturing sector contracted again in September, suggesting the world's second-largest economy is still cooling more rapidly than expected a few months ago.
Relief the figures were not worse sparked 0.5-0.7 percent gains for Chinese stocks ahead of a week-long holiday, though it was a near 2 percent jump for the Nikkei in Tokyo that set the pace as the whole of Asia made gains.
There were rises too of 1.3 to 1.6 percent on Britain's FTSE, Germany's DAX and France's CAC in early European trading as the global rally, which had begun on Wednesday, kept rolling.
"The clouds are clearing a bit. Overall China is clearly slowing but what does give me comfort is that its policy dashboard has a lot more buttons to press on it than ours in Europe," said Neil Williams, chief economist at fund manager Hermes in London.
"I'm now expecting China to cut quite aggressively its interest rates and reserve requirements, and even move towards a fiscal splurge."
Europe's share gains came despite a weakening of euro zone manufacturing growth, a slowing of new orders and price-cutting that underscored the region's sluggishness.
The PMIs, published a day after official data showed euro zone inflation slipped below zero again in September, are likely to add to pressure on the European Central Bank to expand its already more than 1 trillion euro stimulus programme.
In currency markets, the dollar firmed slightly as the brighter market mood added to a sense that the Federal Reserve is still considering its first rise in interest rates in more than a decade later this year.
That and the soft euro zone figures squeezed the euro back down to 1.1146. The Australian dollar, used as a proxy for China-related trades, had earlier risen 0.5 percent to $0.7058 following the China PMIs.
"The Chinese data was just slightly better and this is lending some confidence to investors," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK). "Having said that, euro/dollar is still stuck within familiar ranges."
EMERGING RELIEF
Commodities markets also bounced amid the lull in global risk aversion, with copper and nickel rallying as bearish investors closed out quarter-end positions and ahead of the Chinese holidays. [MET/L]
Industrial metals were also boosted as shares in hard-hit commodity group Glencore (LONDON:GLEN) continued to rebound following upbeat broker notes on the firm from its bankers Citigroup (NYSE:C) and also Barclays (LONDON:BARC). (EU)
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.2 percent at $5,223.50 a tonne after hitting two-week highs. Nickel hovered near a four-week high of $10,465.00 a tonne as traditional safe haven gold slid to a two-week low. [GOL/]
Oil also headed higher. U.S. crude was up 1.5 percent at $45.70 a barrel despite data showing a surge in U.S. crude oil and gasoline stocks last week. Brent crude rose 0.9 percent to $48.83 a barrel.
Europe's benchmark bond markets were largely steady [GVD/EUR] as most investors waited for closely watched U.S. jobs data on Friday likely to influence bets on Fed rate hikes.
Emerging market stocks and currencies enjoyed the respite. MSCI's benchmark global EM index climbed 0.8 percent as the hard hit Brazilian real, Malaysian ringgit Turkish lira and Chilean peso also all held their ground.