Hong Kong stocks snap 4-day rising streak on trade war fears
Reuters|
Mar 14, 2018, 04.11 PM IST
Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday, breaking a four-day rising streak, as fears of a Sino-U.S. trade war outweighed optimism from China's solid economic data.
The Hang Seng index fell 0.5 per cent to 31,435.01, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.5 per cent to 12,684.52 points.
U.S President Donald Trump is seeking to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports in the very near future and will target the technology and telecommunications sectors, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Also fuelling fears of a trade war, Trump has fired his Secretary of State, regarded as a moderate in his administration.
Investors shrugged off stronger-than-expected data from China which showed the country's industrial output expanded at a surprisingly faster pace at the start of the year. Fixed asset investment also handily beat forecasts, while retail sales improved from December.
Larry Hu, analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd, forecast that China's growth in March will slow. "As domestic demand is clearly softening, we expect Jan-Feb growth to be the peak for the year," he wrote.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.3 per cent, while the IT sector rose 0.01 per cent, the financial sector was 0.93 per cent lower and property sector rose 0.17 per cent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd up 1.6 per cent, while the biggest loser was AAC Technologies Holdings Inc which was down 2.81 per cent.
China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.57 per cent at 3,310.2389 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.44 per cent. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.41 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.87 per cent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.3156 per U.S. dollar at 08:20 GMT, 0.13 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.324.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 5.62 per cent this year, while China's H-share index was up 8.9 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 2.45 per cent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd up 3.61 per cent, followed by China Gas Holdings Ltd gaining 1.27 per cent and Huaneng Power International Inc up by 1.16 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares per centage decliners were Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd which was down 2.63 per cent, Huatai Securities Co Ltd which fell 2.0 per cent and Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd down by 1.8 per cent.
About 1.76 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 68.9 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.55 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.18 billion.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 24.51 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.61 as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was 2.7 per cent.
The Hang Seng index fell 0.5 per cent to 31,435.01, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.5 per cent to 12,684.52 points.
U.S President Donald Trump is seeking to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports in the very near future and will target the technology and telecommunications sectors, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Also fuelling fears of a trade war, Trump has fired his Secretary of State, regarded as a moderate in his administration.
Investors shrugged off stronger-than-expected data from China which showed the country's industrial output expanded at a surprisingly faster pace at the start of the year. Fixed asset investment also handily beat forecasts, while retail sales improved from December.
Larry Hu, analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd, forecast that China's growth in March will slow. "As domestic demand is clearly softening, we expect Jan-Feb growth to be the peak for the year," he wrote.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.3 per cent, while the IT sector rose 0.01 per cent, the financial sector was 0.93 per cent lower and property sector rose 0.17 per cent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd up 1.6 per cent, while the biggest loser was AAC Technologies Holdings Inc which was down 2.81 per cent.
China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.57 per cent at 3,310.2389 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.44 per cent. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.41 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.87 per cent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.3156 per U.S. dollar at 08:20 GMT, 0.13 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.324.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 5.62 per cent this year, while China's H-share index was up 8.9 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 2.45 per cent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd up 3.61 per cent, followed by China Gas Holdings Ltd gaining 1.27 per cent and Huaneng Power International Inc up by 1.16 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares per centage decliners were Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd which was down 2.63 per cent, Huatai Securities Co Ltd which fell 2.0 per cent and Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd down by 1.8 per cent.
About 1.76 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 68.9 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.55 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.18 billion.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 24.51 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.61 as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was 2.7 per cent.