SHANGHAI: China stocks finished the week at a 4-1/2-month low, weighed down by financial and consumer shares, while investors braced for moves from the country’s central bank that could affect market sentiment. Hong Kong shares also fell.
China’s central bank has hundreds of billions of yuan worth of bonds at its disposal to borrow, and will sell them depending on market conditions, the bank told Reuters on Friday, part of a plan that markets see as an effort to cool a powerful bond rally.
China’s state-backed Global Times has urged the EU to “show sincerity” in technical talks before imposing tariffs on Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles (EVs), after the bloc said provisional tariffs would take effect from Friday.
For the week, the CSI 300 index was down nearly 1%.
At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.26% at 2,949.93.
The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.43%, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 1.63%, the consumer staples sector down 1.43%, the real estate index down 0.73% and the healthcare sub-index up 2.18%.
The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 0.52% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 0.508%.
Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.07%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed unchanged for the day.
At 07:48, the yuan was quoted at 7.2679 per US dollar, 0.02% firmer than the previous close of 7.2697.
At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 228.67 points, or 1.27%, at 17,799.61. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 1.37% to 6,382.27.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.9%, while the IT sector dipped 0.83%, the financial sector ended 2.13% lower and the property sector dipped 0.99%.
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