Greek stocks bashed on return, China woes hurt commodities

LONDON (Reuters) - Weak data from China helped push oil prices to their lowest in six months on Monday, knocking the Canadian dollar, and sent Asian stocks close to their 2015 lows.

But futures markets pointed to major share indices making a steady start to August. The S&P 500 , Dow Jones Industrial <1YMc1> and Nazdaq markets all looked set to open little changed [.N], shrugging off the troubles of Greece whose stock market slumped as it reopened after being shut for five weeks.

Oil's troubles sent Canada's dollar to its lowest in more than a decade as Wall Street waited for manufacturing data after some soft pre-market consumption and inflation data added to Friday's weaker-than-expected wage figures.

Data overnight showed China's factory activity contracted by the most in two years, feeding a three-month-old sell-off in commodity and emerging markets.

Brent oil fell to $51 a barrel, its lowest since the end of January. Industrial metal copper dropped to its weakest in six years and gold dipped to $1,093 an ounce after its worst month in two years. [GOL/][MEL/][O/R]

"It's just very, very poor sentiment across the commodities sectors at the moment," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis in London.

"While concerns about China remain uppermost in the market's mind and we are sitting here waiting for the first Fed rate hike, it just doesn't want to go up."

In Athens, stocks <.ATG> plunged 17 percent as the market reopened. The euro and lower-rated government bonds also saw some mild selling. [GVD/EUR]

But overall euro zone factory activity grew faster than previously thought in July. The Netherlands, Spain and Italy all reported healthy growth - Italy's expansion was its best in more than four years.

"Policymakers will be reassured by the robust growth rates seen in these countries and the resilience of the manufacturing sector as a whole," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at survey compiler Markit. "Growth is likely to pick up again now that Greece has jumped its latest hurdle."

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> was 0.8 percent higher by 1245 GMT. Gains of 1 and 0.7 percent in Frankfurt <.GDAXI> and Paris were spurred on by upbeat results from HSBC , Commerzbank and Heineken and compensated for a flat London FTSE <.FTSE> as its mining companies and oil firms suffered. <.SXPP> [.EU]

GREAT FALL OF CHINA

China's poor data overnight had made it another difficult day for Asian markets.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> fell more than 1 percent to take it close to early July's lowest level of the year.

Shanghai shares shed 1.1 percent <.SSEC>, Japan's Nikkei <.N225> slid 0.2 percent and South Korea's Kospi <.KS11> fell 1 percent. Australian stocks <.AXJO> dropped 0.4 percent.

Net foreign selling from emerging Asia has reached nearly $10 billion over the past two months. Only India has seen minor inflows.

Russia's rouble racked up some of the day's biggest losses. It fell 1.4 percent to its weakest since mid-March following an interest rate cut last week and as oil, Russia's biggest export, slipped. [EMRG/FRX]

The dollar began to firm again after sliding on Friday's U.S. wage growth data. Its broader trend has been upwards, after the Federal Reserve last week left the door open for a rate increase in September, and it was last at 124.14 yen and $1.0970 to the euro .

The dollar has gained 7.75 percent so far this year against the world's main trading currencies <.DXY>, after a 12.8 percent rise last year.

Its "recent rally may just be getting started," according to research from the BlackRock Investment Institute.

"Since the 1970s when the Bretton Woods fixed-currency regime ended and currencies began floating, a typical dollar rally has lasted roughly six to seven years," said Russ Koesterich, BlackRock global investment strategist.

(Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Larry King/Ruth Pitchford)

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