Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday, breaking a four-day rising streak, as fears of a Sino-US trade war outweighed optimism from China's solid economic data. The Hang Seng index fell 0.5 percent to 31,435.01, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.5 percent to 12,684.52 points.
US President Donald Trump is seeking to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports in the very near future and will target the technology and telecommunications sectors, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Also fuelling fears of a trade war, Trump has fired his Secretary of State, regarded as a moderate in his administration.
Investors shrugged off stronger-than-expected data from China which showed the country's industrial output expanded at a surprisingly faster pace at the start of the year. Fixed asset investment also handily beat forecasts, while retail sales improved from December. Larry Hu, analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd, forecast that China's growth in March will slow. "As domestic demand is clearly softening, we expect January-February growth to be the peak for the year," he wrote.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.3 percent, while the IT sector rose 0.01 percent, the financial sector was 0.93 percent lower and property sector rose 0.17 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd up 1.6 percent, while the biggest loser was AAC Technologies Holdings Inc which was down 2.81 percent.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 5.62 percent this year, while China's H-share index was up 8.9 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 2.45 percent this month.