Sydney —Asian shares barely managed to hold firm on Monday after a tumultuous week for global equities, with US stock futures turning down and Chinese markets deep in the red on fresh signs of cooling in the world’s second-biggest economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.3% after rising just more than 0.5% earlier in the day. The losses in Asia were largely led by China's blue-chip index which tumbled 2.5% following disappointing earnings from the country's top liquor maker Kweichow Moutai. Chinese data at the weekend also underscored worry of a cooling economy as profit growth at its industrial firms slowed for the fifth consecutive month in September as sales of raw materials and manufactured goods ebbed. Citibank has projected China’s real economic growth to slow to 6.4% year on year in the fourth quarter “amid trade headwinds and domestic uncertainties”, compared with a 6.8% rise at the start of the year. “As lagging indicators, overall i...
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