China, Hong Kong stocks mixed as Trump's virus warning stokes anxiety

Shenzhou International group

02/04/2020 05:58

* SSEC 0.3%, CSI300 0.3%, HSI -0.1%
    * HK->Shanghai Connect daily quota used 1.4%, Shanghai->HK
daily
quota used 0%
    * FTSE China A50 +0.2%

    SHANGHAI, April 2(Reuters) - China and Hong Kong stocks were
mixed without much direction on Thursday, as markets were on
edge over the widening fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and a
dire U.S. warning about its impact on the world's largest
economy.
    ** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC 
was up 0.33% at 2,743.64. 
    ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index  .CSI300  was up 0.28%,
with its financial sector sub-index  .CSI300FS  lower by 0.03%,
the consumer staples sector  .CSI000912  gained 0.65%, the real
estate index  .CSI000952  rose 0.04% and the healthcare
sub-index  .CSI300HC  fell 0.12%.
    ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong  .HSCE  rose 0.19%
to 9,422.42, while the Hang Seng Index  .HSI  was down 0.09% at
23,065.02. 
    ** China's economy still faces relatively big pressure in
the short term, as the virus situation around the world remains
unclear and could constrain global and China's economy, Dongguan
Securities wrote in a report.
    ** The A-share market would remain range-bound in April, the
brokerage added. 
    ** U.S President Donald Trump, who had initially played down
the outbreak, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday
that he is considering a plan to halt flights to coronavirus hot
zones in the United States.
    ** White House medical advisers now forecast that even if
Americans follow unprecedented stay-at-home orders, some 100,000
to 240,000 people could die from the respiratory disease.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2BP1DH  
    ** China's ports and shipping firms are bracing for a second
wave of supply chain disruptions that may be deeper and more
prolonged than during the country's coronavirus lockdown as the
global spread of the virus chokes off international demand.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BP2EN 
    ** China, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged in
December, reported dwindling new infections on Wednesday and for
the first time disclosed the number of asymptomatic cases, which
could complicate how trends in the outbreak are read.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BP1K1 
    ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was weaker by 0.28% while Japan's Nikkei index
 .N225  was down 0.29%.
    ** The yuan  CNY=CFXS  was quoted at 7.1021 per U.S. dollar,
0.04% weaker than the previous close of 7.099. 
    ** As of 04:07 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a
premium of 26.92% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.  

 (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by
Krishna Chandra Eluri)
 ((luoyan.liu@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
luoyan.liu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))