China stocks wobble as bond concerns, geopolitics weigh on sentiment

HONG KONG: China stocks struggled for direction on Tuesday, while Hong Kong shares rose as investors assessed the impact of the US-China summit outcomes and the global bond selloff.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index was down 0.5% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index was flat.

Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng rose 0.4%. Investors remained cautious as recent surging bond yields put pressure on Asian equities. Geopolitical risks continue to keep investors on edge.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had paused a planned attack against Iran.

China’s rare earth stocks declined 2.4% by midday after Australia ordered China background investors to divest their holdings in a rare earths project. Meanwhile, Trump’s China visit failing to achieving breakthroughs on trade has also kept investors on the sidelines. Eugene Hsiao, head of China equity strategy at Macquarie Capital, said investors “expected some hard agreement or tangible thing to come out,” but that didn’t happen.

On the positive side, one thing people are arguably pricing in, is a degree of global stability, he added.

In Hong Kong, bank stocks led gains, up nearly 1%.

Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong shares jumped 2.5%, as the firm announced plans to achieve higher returns, including cutting 7,000 roles by 2030.

The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.49%, the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 1.21% and Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR50 index was up 1.01%.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 1.13%, while Japan’s Nikkei index was down 0.41%.‑Reuters