China stocks slip as property giants tally losses

China Overseas Land & Investment

02/09/2024 09:55

(Updates prices)
       SINGAPORE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Chinese shares fell in
heavy trade on Monday, with consumer and property companies
suffering the most significant losses, driven by economic data
and doubts over a report suggesting China may ease mortgage
refinancing.
        
    ** The Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC  closed down 1.1% at
2,811.04 points.
    
    ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index  .CSI300  finished 1.7%
lower and the real estate index  .CSI000952  fell 4.1%. The
consumer staples sector  .CSI000912  fell 3.1% and the food and
beverage index  .CSI000815  dropped 3.5%.
    
    ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong  .HSCE  closed 1.9%
lower at 6,211.61, while the Hang Seng Index  .HSI  ended down
1.7% at 17,691.97.    

    ** A private survey showed that China's new home prices
barely rose in August, while developers China Vanke  000002.SZ 
and Hong Kong's New World Development  0017.HK  reported losses.
    
    ** New World Development shares suffered the largest fall on
the Hang Seng, slumping 13% to a two-decade low after the
company estimated a net loss as deep as HK$20 billion ($2.6
billion) for the year ended June 30.
    
    ** China Vanke shares fell 5% after the state-backed
property giant reported a core loss of 7.6 billion yuan ($1.1
billion) in the first half on Friday, underscoring the depth of
the malaise in the sector.
    
    ** Analysts also assessed the effect of potential loosening
of mortgage refinancing rules which were reported by Bloomberg
News on Friday.  
    
    ** "Refinancing with different banks is unlikely to be
allowed," Nomura economist Ting Lu said, though he nevertheless
expects cuts to mortgage rates that could save borrowers about
100 billion yuan ($14 billion) a year in repayments.
    
    ** The top three H-share losers were bottled water seller
Nongfu Spring  9633.HK , down 5.5%, China Resources Land
 1109.HK , down 5.4%, and China Overseas Land & Investment
 0688.HK , down 4.7%.
    
    ** Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI swung back to growth
in August, data showed on Monday. Still, a survey of larger
companies on Saturday showed activity contracted for a fourth
month.
    
    ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  lost 0.33%, while Japan's Nikkei index  .N225 
closed up 0.14%.    
    
    ** About 34.07 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai
exchange, approximately 123% of the market's 30-day moving
average. About 3.08 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded,
roughly 128% of the market's 30-day moving average.

($1 = 7.1009 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 7.7964 Hong Kong dollars)

 (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips
and Jacqueline Wong)
 ((tom.westbrook@tr.com; +65 6973 8284;))