Hong Kong stocks post worst quarter since 2015 amid virus concerns
31/03/2020 09:58
* Hang Seng up 1.9% on day but down 16.3% in January-March
* Asia faces economic pain from coronavirus spread - World
Bank
* China factory activity beats estimates, raises recovery
hopes
HONG KONG, March 31 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares rose on
Tuesday on signs that China's economy may be recovering from the
coronavirus shock, but deepening fears of a global recession
sent them to their worst quarter since 2015.
** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index .HSI was up 1.9%
at 23,603.48. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index .HSCE rose
2.1%.
** But the Hang Seng fell 9.7% in March, marking its worst month
since October 2018. It dropped 16.3% in the first quarter, its
largest quarterly decline since the third quarter of 2015.
** On Tuesday, the sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy
shares .HSCIE rallied 5.3%, the IT sector .HSCIIT rose 2.1%,
the financial sector .HSNF gained 1.4% and the property sector
.HSNP was up 3.3%.
** Factory activity in China unexpectedly expanded in March from
a collapse the month before, but analysts caution that a durable
near-term recovery is far from assured as the global coronavirus
crisis knocks foreign demand and threatens a steep economic
slump. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BN1SR
** The pandemic is expected to sharply slow growth in developing
economies in East Asia and the Pacific as well as China, the
World Bank said in an economic update on Monday. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2BO052
** Hong Kong private home prices in February posted the biggest
monthly decline since November 2018, falling 2.1% as the
coronavirus spread across the financial centre. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BO17L
** The top gainer on the Hang Seng was PetroChina Co Ltd
0857.HK , which gained 8.4%, while the biggest loser was CSPC
Pharmaceutical Group Ltd 1093.HK , which fell 4.3%.
** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
.MIAPJ0000PUS was firmer by 1.3%, while Japan's Nikkei index
.N225 closed down 0.9%.
** About 2.88 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded. The
volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.55 billion.
** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of
25.30% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares. .HSCAHPI
(Reporting by Noah Sin; Additional reporting by Andrew
Galbraith and Luoyan Liu in Shanghai; Editing by Subhranshu
Sahu)
((Noah.Sin@thomsonreuters.com; +852 5202 7991; Reuters
Messaging: noah.sin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: https://twitter.com/noah_sin))