SHANGHAI: Mainland China stocks inched lower on Monday, dragged down by property shares, while Hong Kong tracked regional peers higher following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish pivot suggesting an imminent rate cut in the world’s largest economy.

China stocks track Asian markets higher

Powell on Friday endorsed an imminent start to interest rate cuts, saying further cooling in the job market would be unwelcome and expressing confidence that inflation is within reach of the US central bank’s 2% target.

• Asian shares crept cautiously higher, while the dollar and bond yields were on the wane ahead of inflation data that investors hope will pave the way for rate cuts in the United States and Europe.

• Meanwhile, China’s central bank rolled over maturing medium-term loans and kept the interest rate unchanged, underlining market expectations for further easing as the economy struggles to gain traction.

• At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.07% at 2,852.34.

• China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.07%, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.14%, the consumer staples sector down 0.64%, the real estate index up 2.14% and the healthcare sub-index down 0.96%.

• Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong rose 0.7% to 6,262.6, while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.82% at 17,756.09.

• The smaller Shenzhen index was up 0.52%, the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 0.13% and Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR50 index was down 0.14%.

• Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.59%, while Japan’s Nikkei index was down 1.04%.