Hong Kong stocks snap 4-day rising streak on trade war fears

Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric

14/03/2018 08:30

* HK->Shanghai Connect daily quota used 3.2 pct,
Shanghai->HK
daily quota used 1.6 pct
    * Hang Seng index ends down 0.5 pct; China Enterprises index
HSCE
falls 0.5 percent, HSI financial sector sub-index is 0.9 percent
lower; property sector up 0.2 percent

    March 14 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday,
breaking a four-day rising streak, as fears of a Sino-U.S. trade
war outweighed optimism from China's solid economic data.
    
** The Hang Seng index  .HSI  fell 0.5 percent to 31,435.01,
while the China Enterprises Index  .HSCE  lost 0.5 percent to
12,684.52 points.   
    
** U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to impose tariffs on
up to $60 billion of Chinese imports in the very near future and
will target the technology and telecommunications sectors,
Reuters reported on Tuesday. Also fuelling fears of a trade war,
Trump has fired his Secretary of State, regarded as a moderate
in his administration. 
           
**  Investors shrugged off stronger-than-expected data from
China which showed the country's industrial output expanded at a
surprisingly faster pace at the start of the year. Fixed asset
investment also handily beat forecasts, while retail sales
improved from December.  
       
** Larry Hu, analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd, forecast that
China's growth in March will slow. "As domestic demand is
clearly softening, we expect Jan-Feb growth to be the peak for
the year," he wrote. 
**The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares  .HSCIE 
rose 0.3 percent, while the IT sector  .HSCIIT  rose 0.01
percent, the financial sector  .HSNF  was 0.93 percent lower and
property sector rose 0.17 percent.
 
** The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Co
Ltd  2007.HK  up 1.6 percent, while the biggest loser was AAC
Technologies Holdings Inc  2018.HK  which was down 2.81 percent.
 
** China's main Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC  closed down
0.57 percent at 3,310.2389 points, while its blue-chip CSI300
index  .CSI300  ended down 0.44 percent.
 
 ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was weaker by 0.41 percent, while Japan's Nikkei
index  .N225  closed down 0.87 percent.
 
 ** The yuan  CNY=CFXS  was quoted at 6.3156 per U.S. dollar at
08:20 GMT, 0.13 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.324.
 
** As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was
up 5.62 percent this year, while China's H-share index was up
8.9 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen
2.45 percent this month. 
 
** The top gainers among H-shares were Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd
 0914.HK  up 3.61 percent, followed by China Gas Holdings Ltd
 0384.HK  gaining 1.27 percent and Huaneng Power International
Inc  0902.HK  up by 1.16 percent.
 
** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Zhuzhou
CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd  3898.HK  which was down 2.63
percent, Huatai Securities Co Ltd  6886.HK  which fell 2.0
percent and Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd  1658.HK  down
by 1.8 percent.
 
** About 1.76 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded,
roughly 68.9 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of
2.55 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous
trading session was 2.18 billion.
 
** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a
premium of 24.51 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
 
** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.61
as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was
2.7 percent.

 (Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Biju
Dwarakanath)
 ((samuel.shen@thomsonreuters.com;  +86 21 6104 1789; Reuters
Messaging: samuel.shen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))