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

SHANGHAI: 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 fell more than 3 percent to hit six-month lows in the morning, but the benchmark ended the day down 1.4 percent, after witnessing record daily inflows from mainland investors under Stock Connect.

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

Meanwhile, China’s yuan, which hit the weakest level in a month against the rebounding dollar at open, also steadied. Asian equities 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 US 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 fell sharply in the morning, but ended the day roughly flat. Energy stocks gained but most other sectors fell in Hong Kong, with financials and shipping leading the declines.

Mainland Chinese net buying of Hong Kong stocks exceeded HKD37 billion (USD4.73 billion) on Monday, the biggest daily inflow on record.