China, HK shares rise as stimulus sways investor focus from Taiwan

SHANGHAI: China and Hong Kong stocks rose on Thursday, as investors’ focus shifted from tensions around Taiwan to a raft of newly launched infrastructure projects that Beijing hopes can help stabilise its COVID-hit economy.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.9%, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8%.

Hong Kong’s benchmark index Hang Seng added 2.1%, led by technology shares.

Analysts said markets were relieved that US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan didn’t trigger direct military conflict, although Sino-US tensions linger over the self-ruled island that China claims as its own.

“This episode is just going to be one of many episodes that are going to happen in the next 10 years, where every now and then there’s going to be tensions between the two superpowers,” said Nuno Fernandes, partner and portfolio manager of GW&K. “We do think that cooler heads prevail.”

Investor focus now shifted to signs infrastructure investment is gathering pace as Beijing seeks to revive its economy.

In July, 3,876 major projects started construction, involving total investment of 2.4 trillion yuan ($355.33 billion), the Securities Times said on Thursday.

In the second half, China’s State Grid plans to invest more than 150 billion yuan in ultra high voltage (UHV) power transmission lines, state media Xinhua News reported.

China’s infrastructure stocks rose 1.4%.

China’s banking stocks also gained ahead of the release of July lending data.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 3.2%.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba jumped 5.2% as the Chinese tech giant will report its earnings on Thursday.

Trip.com, Baidu and Bilibili all rose more than 4% in Hong Kong.