The mood in the boardrooms of China’s manufacturing companies stayed gloomy in January. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the sector rose to 49.2 points, 0.2 percentage points higher than in the previous month, the statistics office announced in Beijing on Wednesday. However, the leading indicator, which is important for analysts and decision-makers, is still below the 50-point mark. That signals that businesses surveyed were contracting rather than growing. Experts had expected a slightly higher score. The outlook for industrial companies has been negative for nearly half a year. Accor…