Australian and New Zealand currencies rose versus the yen after a survey of companies showed Chinese manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in two years, brightening the outlook for commodity exports. The South Pacific dollars advanced against their Japanese counterpart after the announcement by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics for the preliminary reading of a Purchasing Managers’ Index for China beat analysts’ forecasts. The so- called Aussie weakened versus the dollar as North Korea threatened to conduct a nuclear weapons test, damping demand for higher-yielding assets. “We have seen a bounce back in the Australian and New Zealand dollars due to the Chinese PMI data,� said Tim Waterer, a senior foreign-exchange dealer at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The fact that we’ve seen another improvement in Chinese activity lends itself to support a currency like the Aussie, which is hypersensitive to all things Chinese.� Australia’s dollar rose 0.3 percent to 93.79 yen as of 3:19 p.m. in Sydney. It fell 0.3 percent to $1.0520. New Zealand’s currency gained 0.7 percent to 75.19 yen and added 0.1 percent to 84.34 U.S. cents. The preliminary reading of the PMI Index was 51.9 in January, according to a statement from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics today. That compares with the 51.5 final reading for December and the 51.7 median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. China is Australia’s largest trading partner and New Zealand’s second-largest export destination. North Korea threatened to conduct a nuclear weapons test “targeted� at the U.S. after the Obama administration pushed through new United Nations sanctions against the totalitarian state for last month’s rocket launch. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.1 percent after earlier falling as much as 0.4 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net

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