Asian shares slump as HK unrest saps confidence

TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters): Asian shares slumped on Wednesday as continued civil unrest in Hong Kong and a downbeat day on Wall Street sapped confidence, while the dollar index was close to a four-year high after marking its best quarterly gain in six years.
Trading in Asia was subdued with China closed for National Day and investors warily monitoring Hong Kong's pro-democracy unrest, as thousands of protesters stepped up pressure on the city's pro-Beijing government.
A Chinese manufacturing survey offered investors some relief, and helped put a floor under prices. The official Purchasing Managers' Index was unchanged at 51.1 in September, slightly above market expectations, though the world's second largest economy was not out of the woods yet.
"The economy still faces a degree of downward pressure," Chen Zhongtao, an official at the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which helps to compile the PMI data, said in a statement.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 per cent, though above session lows.
Japan's Nikkei stock average ended down 0.6 per cent, despite trading positive for a few hours after the dollar broke above the 110-yen level for the first time since August 2008.