HONG KONG: Hong Kong's benchmark stock index fell on Thursday, despite a jump in index heavyweight Tencent Holdings , as US and China resumed trade talks in Washington.
The Hang Seng index fell 0.5 percent, to 30,942.15, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.3 percent, to 12,278.43 points.
Investors turned cautious as the United States and China resumed trade talks on Thursday in a bid to avert a damaging tariff war, with the White House's harshest China critic relegated to a supporting role, senior Trump administration officials said on Wednesday.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng, tracking energy shares , dipped 0.9 percent while the IT sector rose 2.95 percent, the financial sector was 1.26 percent lower and property sector dipped 0.97 percent .
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Tencent Holdings Ltd , up 3.74 percent, while the biggest loser was WH Group Ltd, down 2.15 percent.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.32 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.53 percent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.368 per US dollar at 08:39 GMT, 0.04 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3705.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 3.98 percent this year, while China's H-share index was up 6.2 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 0.98 percent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares included CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, up 2.41 percent, and Hengan International Group Company Ltd, up 1.52 percent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, down 3.42 percent, Air China Ltd, down 2.9 percent and Huatai Securities Co Ltd, down 2.4 percent.
About 1.55 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 92.7 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.67 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous session was 1.39 billion.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 20.73 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 12.45 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 3.1 percent.
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