China, Hong Kong stocks climb on upbeat GDP data

SHANGHAI: China and Hong Kong shares climbed on Monday, as investors cheered better-than-expected gross domestic product data (GDP) pointing to a solid recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

** The CSI300 index rose 0.8% to 5,504.17 by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.7% to 3,591.33.

** The Hang Seng index edged up 0.5% to 28,712.79 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.7%, to 11,396.01.

** China's economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-hit 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the pandemic raged unabated.

** The world's second-largest economy has surprised many with the speed of its recovery from last year's coronavirus jolt, especially as policymakers have also had to navigate tense US-China relations on trade and other fronts.

** Leading the gains, the CSI300 banks index and CSI300 transport index rose 2.2% and 1.7%, respectively.

** There was muted reaction to news that the Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm.

** The Hang Seng tech index added 3.3%, while the CSI IT index firmed 2.8%.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.67% while Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.00%.

** The yuan was quoted at 6.4872 per US dollar, 0.08% weaker than the previous close of 6.4817.

** As of 04:17 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 36.54% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.