The Asian markets closed in red on Friday as fears about the health of the global economy pounded equity markets. Worries of a deepening China economic slowdown intensified after a private survey showed the factory sector shrank at its fastest rate in almost 6-1/2-years in August, hammering global stocks and commodity prices. The gloomy figure sent investors fleeing for cover in gold and bonds, fearing China’s sagging economy would translate into slower global growth and muddy the outlook for the timing of the first US interest rate hike in nearly a decade. The preliminary Caixin/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 47.1 in August, down from July’s final 47.8. It was the worst reading since March 2009, in the depths of the global financial crisis, and the sixth straight one below the 50-point level, which separates growth in activity from contraction on a monthly basis. Indonesia’s central bank has changed the auction mechanism of several monetary instruments and offered longer tenures as part of measures to support the shaky rupiah. The change is aimed at absorbing banks’ excess short-term liquidity to prevent its use to speculate against the rupiah. Japan’s trade balance fell to a seasonally adjusted -0.37T, from -0.28T in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from -0.25T. Asian Indices Last Trade Change in Points Change in % Shanghai Composite 3,507.74 -156.55 -4.27 Hang Seng 22,409.62 -347.85 -1.53 Jakarta Composite 4,335.95 -105.96 -2.39 KLSE Composite 1,574.67 -2.74 -0.17 Nikkei 225 19,435.83 -597.69 -2.98 Straits Times 2,971.01 -38.77 -1.29 KOSPI Composite 1,876.07 -38.48 -2.01 Taiwan Weighted 7,786.92 -242.89 -3.02