China stocks recouped earlier losses to end higher on Tuesday, bolstered by tech firms as investors cheered their solid earnings as Beijing seeks to support the sector amid a bruising trade war. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.4%, to 3,895.88, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5% to 2,954.38. US President Donald Trump on Monday said efforts to end a US-China trade war were going well. The world's two largest economies continue to battle over trade and politics across the world, despite heralding a long-awaited truce this month.
Meanwhile, China is seeking $2.4 billion in retaliatory sanctions against the United States for failing to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling in a case that highlights White House complaints about the global trade body. Investors sought more clues from corporate results as the third quarter earnings draws to a close - to gauge the country's corporate health amid a slowing economy and to see the impact of Beijing's stimulative measures.
Any future support for the stock market would come from Beijing's hedging policies and reforms that beat market expectations, as overall corporate results in the third quarter would be basically in line with falling GDP growth, Zhou Longgang, analyst with Huachuang Securities, noted in report. Leading the gains, the tech-heavy start-up board index ChiNextP ended up 1.4%, underpinned by a series of strong results for leading players, including Apple supplier Luxshare Precision Industry.
Beijing is expected to continue strong support for its tech sector in a bid to seek technological self-sufficiency as more companies were blacklisted by the US amid the trade war. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.51%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.25%. At 07:14 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 7.0718 per US dollar, 0.05% firmer than the previous close of 7.075.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 18.5% and the CSI300 has risen 29.4%, while China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 4%. Shanghai stocks have risen 1.69% this month. About 11.75 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 65.1% of the market's 30-day moving average of 18.06 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 13.25 billion. As of 07:15 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 29.36% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.