China's services activity growth accelerated in March as new business rose at the quickest pace in three months, according to a private-sector survey released on Wednesday.

The Caixin/S&P Global services purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, edged up to 52.7 from 52.5 the month before, staying above the 50-mark for the 15th consecutive month.

Any readings above 50 indicate expansion, while readings below 50 suggest contraction.

Together with earlier better-than-expected manufacturing surveys, the data adds to evidence that sentiment in the world’s second largest economy is tentatively recovering.

The latest data also pushes up business confidence as the subindex of future activity increased for the first time in three months, amid hopes that new product lines, expansion plans and rises in client budgets will help boost sales.

However, respondents also noted that staff resignations as well as redundancies to improve productivity resulted in a fall in payroll numbers.

Taken together with the upbeat Caixin manufacturing PMI, the Caixin/S&P’s composite PMI rose to 52.7 last month from 52.5 in February. That was the highest reading since last May.

Earlier, the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics, which covers large and state-owned companies, showed that China’s manufacturing activity expanded for the first time in six months in March.

The official PMI grew to 50.8 last month from 49.1 in February, as the non-manufacturing PMI rose to 53 from 51.4 the previous month.

The Caixin/S&P Global PMI survey covers small and medium-sized enterprises and is considered to be a more reliable indicator of the overall private sector in China. (Agencies)