Drawing on the data of Chinese manufacturing firms during 2004-2016 compiled by the Chinese Customs Trade Statistics, this paper explores that how different financial markets improve the development of manufacturing industries through influencing their industrial evolution. Empirical results indicate that the roles of credit markets and equity markets in influencing regional industrial evolution are different. Overall, credit markets can enhance path dependence trend of industrial evolution, while equity markets have a significant effect on enhancing industrial path-breaking development. Moreover, due to the spillover effects of financial markets, not only the local financial markets but also the financial markets in regional central cities can affect local industrial evolution. In eastern China, local financial markets play a more important role in promoting local industrial evolution than financial markets in regional central cities, while in central and western China, local industrial evolution is more affected by financial markets in regional central cities.