By Karin Strohecker LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks hit a three-week low on Thursday and currencies struggled as manufacturing data from around the globe did little to soothe investor nerves ahead of key U.S. jobs data. MSCI's emerging markets benchmark slipped 0.3 percent, dragged lower by losses across Asia, where bourses in Taiwan, Indonesia and mainland China tumbled by as much as 1 percent. The losses came in the wake of surveys showing that activity at smaller manufacturers in China struggled to make much headway, while larger firms continued to expand. Manufacturing data elsewhere showed a largely tepid economic performance across many emerging economies. In Turkey, the Markit purchasing managers' index (PMI) - which represents a third of the country's economy - shrank for the sixth consecutive time in August. Emerging from a deep recession, Russia showed a pick up in manufacturing activity in August as new orders and output pushed the PMI to 50.8 - just above the 50.0 level that marks expansion - but the recovery remained uneven. Across emerging Europe, PMI data showed manufacturing activity growth slowing in Hungary and below forecasts in the Czech Republic. But in Poland, it pointed to growth picking up faster-than-expected. "The PMI data we had for emerging markets was weak - the China one was quite mixed and it was similar for the others," said Murat Toprak, emerging market strategist at HSBC. "On average, we have a PMI which is flat but most of the indices are above 50 - so there is still an expansion, but it is slow." Currencies remained fragile. South Africa's rand was one of the rare gainers, strengthening 0.8 percent against the dollar, but that followed nine straight sessions of losses. Russia's rouble struggled 0.1 percent higher against the greenback, finding support from oil prices stabilizing after crude had racked up solid losses in the past two days on worries of oversupply. In emerging Europe, Hungary's forint strengthened 0.2 percent against the euro, while other currencies traded flat. Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chg on year Morgan Stanley Emrg Mkt Indx 891.45 -2.23 -0.25 +12.25 Czech Rep 864.39 +5.25 +0.61 -9.61 Poland 1775.55 -18.01 -1.00 -4.50 Hungary 28125.77 +156.53 +0.56 +17.58 Romania 7040.88 +5.16 +0.07 +0.52 Greece 580.88 +3.49 +0.60 -7.99 Russia 951.93 +1.68 +0.18 +25.74 South Africa 46285.62 +24.60 +0.05 +1.07 Turkey 76070.01 +102.38 +0.13 +6.05 China 3062.97 -22.52 -0.73 -13.46 India 28543.96 +91.79 +0.32 +9.29 Currencies Latest Prev Local Local close currency currency % change % change in 2016 Czech Rep 27.01 27.01 -0.00 -0.05 Poland 4.36 4.36 -0.11 -2.42 Hungary 310.04 309.37 -0.22 +1.48 Romania 4.45 4.45 +0.03 +1.49 Serbia 123.03 123.04 +0.01 -1.27 Russia 65.26 65.35 +0.15 +11.79 Kazakhstan 340.98 340.16 -0.24 -0.14 Ukraine 26.55 26.20 -1.32 -9.79 South Africa 14.60 14.73 +0.89 +5.90 Kenya 101.25 101.15 -0.10 +0.94 Israel 3.78 3.77 -0.14 +2.91 Turkey 2.95 2.96 +0.08 -1.28 China 6.68 6.68 -0.03 -2.80 India 66.98 66.96 -0.03 -1.17 Brazil 3.22 3.23 +0.14 +22.88 Mexico 18.78 18.78 +0.00 -8.57 Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn Index Sov'gn Debt EMBIG 358 -3 .02 7 68.85 1 For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2016, see http://link.reuters.com/jus35t For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2016, see http://link.reuters.com/weh36s For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging Europe performance 2016, see http://link.reuters.com/jun28s For GRAPHIC on MSCI frontier index performance 2016, see http://link.reuters.com/zyh97s For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see For TURKISH market report, see For RUSSIAN market report, see ) (Additional reporting by Claire Milhench; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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