HONG KONG: Hong Kong and China stocks reversed earlier declines on Friday and narrowed the week’s losses, as a chip share rally and potential state buying shielded against more losses from the escalating trade war with the US
The Hang Seng Index jumped 1.1% at the close, reversing an earlier fall of as much as 1.2% in morning trades. The tech subindex climbed 1.8%.
Chipmakers were among the biggest winners, with Hua Hong Semiconductor rallying a shade over 20% before ending the day with a 14% gain. Peer SMIC climbed 6%.
On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index and the blue-chip CSI 300 Index also reversed losses to climb 0.5% and 0.4% respectively.
The CSI Semiconductor Industry Index led gains onshore with a jump of 2.7%.
The gains in the afternoon session have helped both Hong Kong and mainland markets to recover some ground from a heavy selloff earlier in the week as the trade war between the world’s two largest economies heated up.
US President Trump paused most of his “reciprocal” tariffs on Wednesday, though he has singled out China with eye-popping duties of 145% on its goods.
Despite the gains on Friday, the Hang Seng Index still suffered a weekly loss of 8.5%, the biggest since February 2018, while the CSI 300 Index posted the biggest weekly retreat in four months.
Hong Kong’s bounce was following a move in mainland A shares that was widely believed to involve buying by Chinese state funds known as the “national team”, according to Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.
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