China stocks rise on stimulus, drop in new coronavirus cases

Want Want China Holdings

07/04/2020 05:53

* SSEC +1.7%, CSI300 +2.0%, HSI +0.3%
    * HK->Shanghai Connect daily quota used 7.8%, Shanghai->HK
daily
quota used 1.1%
    * FTSE China A50 +1.6%

    SHANGHAI, April 7(Reuters) - China stocks rose about 2% on
Tuesday as markets resumed trading after a long weekend, with
investor sentiment lifted by Beijing's latest stimulus to shore
up the world's second-largest economy and a drop in the new
coronavirus cases. 
    ** The Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC  climbed 1.74% to 
2,812.14 by the midday break. Chinese markets were closed on
Monday for the Qingming Festival holiday. 
    ** The blue-chip CSI300 index  .CSI300  was up 1.97%, with
its financial sector sub-index  .CSI300FS  higher by 1.3%, the
consumer staples sector  .CSI000912  up 2.71%, the real estate
index  .CSI000952  gaining 0.83% and the healthcare sub-index
 .CSI300HC  up 2.13%.
    ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong  .HSCE  rose 0.3% to
9,681.07, while the Hang Seng Index  .HSI  was up 0.28% at
23,815.49.
    ** The smaller Shenzhen index  .SZSC  was up 2.69% and the
start-up board ChiNext Composite index  .CNT  was higher by
2.85%. 
    ** China's central bank said on Friday it was cutting the
amount of cash that small banks must hold as reserves, releasing
around 400 billion yuan ($56.38 billion) in liquidity to shore
up the economy, which has been badly jolted by the coronavirus
crisis.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2BQ0ZP
    ** China has about 4,000 small and mid-sized banks. The
latest cuts would lower their RRR to 6%. 
    ** Overall, China is stepping up its domestic
counter-cyclical measures to combat the epidemic's hit, though
investors need to pay attention to the negative impact on
external demand given the uncertainties around the outbreak
overseas, Sinolin Securities analysts said in a report. 
    ** Mainland China reported a drop in the new coronavirus
cases after closing its borders to virtually all foreigners to
curb imported infections, while the central city of Wuhan, the 
epicentre of the outbreak, saw no new deaths for the first time.
    ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was firmer by 0.88% while Japan's Nikkei index
 .N225  was up 0.66%.
    ** The yuan  CNY=CFXS  was quoted at 7.0817 per U.S. dollar,
0.17% firmer than the previous close of 7.0938. 
    ** As of 04:16 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a
premium of 26.99% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

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