* Spreadbetter sees European bourses opening higher
* Crude oil prices take back some ground lost on oversupply fears
* China official PMI edges up, but private survey slips
By Lisa Twaronite
TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Asian shares dipped on Thursday after lower crude oil prices dented Wall Street and a pair of Chinese manufacturing surveys did little to inspire investors as markets waited to see if U.S. employment data could put the Federal Reserve on track to hike interest rates.
Crude oil futures took back some lost ground after skidding on news of a large weekly build in U.S. crude and distillate stockpiles and a smaller-than-expected drawdown in gasoline.
Financial spreadbetter CMC Markets expected Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 to all open modestly higher.
"The latest UK manufacturing survey could well assuage some concerns about the health of the UK economy in the wake of the recent Brexit vote, if as expected we get a rebound from July's disappointing 48.2 reading, with an August rebound to 49.1 expected," wrote Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off its session lows but still down 0.2 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index shed 0.3 percent.
China's manufacturing activity stagnated in August as growth in output and new orders slowed, prompting companies to shed staff for the 34th month in a row, the private Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) showed. Its index slipped to 50.0 in August, the no-change mark which separates expansion of activity from contraction on a monthly basis, from 50.6 in July.
"Downward pressure on China's economy remains and government support to stabilise growth must continue," Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, said in a note accompanying the PMI report.
But China's official PMI survey was more upbeat and showed manufacturing activity picked up unexpectedly in August, nudging up modestly to 50.4, compared with the previous month's reading of 49.9.
"Markets aren't showing much reaction to the official China PMI, even though it edged up slightly above the 50-point level," said Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. "It did not give much of a lift to Japanese markets, for which U.S. markets are a bigger factor."
Japan's Nikkei stock index shrugged off losses and managed to end up 0.2 percent.
The dollar was down 0.1 percent at 103.36 yen, after rising as high as 103.54 on Wednesday, its highest since July 29. The euro edged down 0.1 percent to $1.1148.