Hong Kong, China stocks trim losses as Iran war-triggered sell-off lures bargain hunters

Hong Kong and China Gas Co

09/03/2026 09:13

Update prices

SHANGHAI March 9 (Reuters) - Hong Kong and China stocks trimmed losses in afternoon trade on Monday as an earlier tumble triggered by Iran conflict fears prompted bargain hunting.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI fell more than 3% to hit six-month lows in the morning, but the benchmark ended the day down 1.4%, after witnessing record daily inflows from mainland investors under Stock Connect.

     China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC also pared their losses, ending the session down less than 1%.

Meanwhile, China's yuan CNY=CFXS, which hit the weakest level in a month against the rebounding dollar =USD at open, also steadied.

 Asian equities .MIAPJ0000PUS were broadly down on concern the Middle East war could leave consumers and businesses worldwide facing weeks or months of higher fuel prices, threatening an already fragile global economy.

"The war has reduced risk appetite," Deng Lijun, strategist at Huajin Securities told investors in a roadshow.

"There's a lot of uncertainty, especially regarding how long the conflict will last."

But Deng said the long-term uptrend of China's stock market had not ended, citing policy support and improving corporate earnings.

Investors largely ignored data showing China's consumer inflation accelerated to the highest in more than three years on the back of the Lunar New Year holiday, while producer deflation persisted.

   Sentiment was not helped by reports that a summit this month between U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping was unlikely to yield a breakthrough in bilateral ties.

Meanwhile, the ongoing annual parliament meeting in Beijing suggested China was in no hurry to roll out major fiscal or monetary stimulus.

     Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech Index .HSTECH fell sharply in the morning, but ended the day roughly flat.

Energy stocks gained .HSCIE but most other sectors fell in Hong Kong, with financials .HSCIF and shipping .HSSH leading the declines.

     Mainland Chinese net buying of Hong Kong stocks exceeded HK$37 billion ($4.73 billion) on Monday, the biggest daily inflow on record.

In China, resource-related sectors such as energy .CSI000908, coal .CSI399998 and cement .CSI399998 rose, but tech shares .CSIINT, .STAR100 fell sharply.

($1 = 6.9170 Chinese yuan renminbi)

($1 = 7.8156 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Jamie Freed and Kate Mayberry)

((samuel.shen@tr.com))