SHANGHAI: China and Hong Kong stocks ended lower on Wednesday, tracking broad declines across Asia onprolonged Middle East tensions and inflation concerns.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index closed 0.04 percent lower, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng was down 0.6 percent.
The CSI New Energy Index rose 1.1 percent as stalled US-Iran talks kept oil prices elevated.
President Donald Trump said the United States may need to strike Iran again but suggested Iran wants a deal to end the war that has roiled markets and sent energy prices soaring.
Semiconductor shares rallied 4.6 percent, helping trim benchmark losses, with Hua Hong Semiconductor surging 19 percent after Yangtze Memory Technologies, the country’s top flash memory chip maker, submitted its IPO tutoring registration report, marking the official start of its onshore listing process.
Onshore financial and property shares fell 0.9 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
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