SHANGHAI: Shanghai stocks closed at three-month highs, while Hong Kong shares ended unchanged on Tuesday, despite an overnight slump in US stocks on fears of aggressive US rate hikes, as analysts expect China’s growth to rebound with more policy support.
The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.8% to 4,222.31, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1% to 3,288.91 points, after dropping as much as 1.8%.
The Hang Seng index closed flat at 21,067.99, after slumping as much as 1.7%, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.1%, to 7,333.61 points.
Wall Street hit a confirmed bear market milestone amid a Goldman Sachs forecast of a 75-basis-point interest rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on Wednesday.
“US inflation has direct impact on A-shares, as we can see from the performance in recent two days,” said Wang Mengying, a stock index futures analyst at Nanhua Futures. “China stocks performance will eventually depend on expectations of domestic economic recovery.” “However, if more aggressive rate hikes lead to less aggregate global demand, domestic expectations would also be hit.” Authorities in China’s capital Beijing are rushing to contain a COVID-19 outbreak traced to a 24-hour bar, with a health official saying the outbreak was “still developing”.
“I think the worst is actually behind us when it comes to the Omicron variant” said David Chao, global market strategist, Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) at Invesco.
“While we see growth challenged in the first half of 2022, we expect a rebound in the second half driven by a combination of fiscal and monetary policy measures in contrast with many Western developed countries.” Foreign investors were net buyers of China stocks, with Refinitiv data showing inflows of more than 7.1 billion yuan ($1.05 billion) through the Northbound leg of the Stock Connect programme., Financials stocks jumped 2.7%, with banks adding 1.5%, while brokers soared 4.8%, and real estate developers gained 2%.
Energy shares rose 2.3% and automobiles finished up 3.3%.
Tech gaints listed in Hong Kong edged down 0.1%, with index heavyweights Alibaba Group down 2.5% while Meituan was up 3.3%.
BOC Hong Kong Holdings led gains in local banks, rising 4.8% to become the biggest percentage gainer in the Hang Seng index.
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