A decline in the number of new individual securities accounts was first seen in July and continued into August, falling by 22.1 per cent year-on-year to 155,000. Domestic individual investors, meanwhile, continued to be net sellers in August for the fourth consecutive month.
The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reached 52.7 points in August, up from 51.2 points in July and signaling a strong improvement in manufacturing. Of note is that input cost growth continued to decline sharply, which helped limit increases to output prices and thereby boosted demand.
