SHANGHAI: China and Hong Kong stocks ended lower on Thursday, dragged down by lacklustre performance in property shares, as Beijing left its key benchmark lending rates unchanged despite recent data showing the economy remains wobbly.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index closed down by 0.7, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4% to a two-month low. Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng was down 0.6%.

China left the one-year and five-year loan prime rates (LPR) unchanged at a monthly fixing on Thursday, underscoring that Beijing’s monetary easing efforts continued to be limited by narrowing interest rate margins and a weakening currency.

The 5-year LPR influences the pricing of mortgages.

Property shares traded in China and Hong Kong dropped 2.9% and 1.8%, respectively.

Chinese automakers have urged Beijing to hike tariffs on imported European gasoline-powered cars in retaliation for Brussels’ curbs on exports of Chinese-made EVs, the state-backed Global Times newspaper said on Wednesday.

The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.72%, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.7%, the consumer staples sector down 0.68%, the real estate index down 2.88% and the healthcare sub-index easing 1.47%.

The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 1.88% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 1.442%.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.07%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 0.16%.

At 07:47, the yuan was quoted at 7.2602 per US dollar, 0.04% weaker than the previous close of 7.2572.

At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 95.07 points or 0.52% at 18,335.32. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.48% to 6,556.1.