That's down from 51.4 in September, and it falls beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The services PMI improved to 53.1, up from 52.4 in September, while the composite ticked up to 52.6 from 52.4 a month earlier.

The uptick in business activity was underpinned by rising new business. Incoming new orders expanded at a solid pace, with growth similarly confined to the service sector while new orders for goods fell at the fastest pace so far this year.

Anecdotal evidence suggested that sufficient stock holdings at clients of manufacturing companies and subdued market conditions, attributed partly to challenging global trade conditions, led to the reduction in goods new orders. Manufacturing export orders also fell, though growth in services exports resulted in a stabilization of overall new export business in October.

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