China stocks rise, Evergrande's assurances lift real estate

SHANGHAI: Chinese stocks rose on Thursday, led by semiconductors and consumer staples, while debt-laden developer China Evergrande's assurances lifted real estate firms in mainland and Hong Kong.

The CSI300 index rose 0.7% to 4,855.51 at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6% to 3,649.57.

The Hang Seng index added 0.7% to 24,388.52. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.9% to 8,718.64.

** The real estate sub-index gained 2.1%, while the banking sub-index slipped 0.2%.

** China Evergrande Group said it held an internal meeting late on Wednesday night, urging company executives to ensure the quality delivery of properties and redemption of wealth management products.

** Evergrande said it had "resolved" one coupon payment due on Thursday but didn't give more details, leaving it unclear what this means for $83.5 million in dollar bond interest payments due on the day.

** Consumer staples rose 1.2%, while the energy sub-index dropped 2.7%.

** China's cabinet pledged on Wednesday to roll out policies to boost consumption, and use more market-based measures to stabilise commodity prices.

** The semiconductors sub-index and the infrastructure sub-index added more than 2.5% each.

** In Hong Kong, property-related firms led gains on catch-up trade, as the market was shut for a public holiday on Wednesday.

** China Evergrande Group soared as much as more than 30% in morning trading and was up 10.6% at the end of morning session.

** The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index surged 7.7%, while the Hang Seng Property Index was up 3.9%.

** The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.4%. Tech giants Meituan and Tencent Holdings went up but Alibaba Group declined after they said they have begun to send its consumer credit data to a database run by China's central bank.

** A sub-index tracking energy gained 2.6%.