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Chinese stocks slipped on Thursday as hot brokerage shares cooled on questions about margin trading and investors shifted interest to coming listings, while the Hong Kong market rebounded after five days of losses.
The CSI300 index of leading Shanghai and Shenzhen listings fell 0.4 per cent, to 3,347.51 points at the end of the morning. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 per cent, to 3,051.11 points.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 1.3 per cent, to 22,887.7 points. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 1.3 per cent, to 11,413.39.
Analysts said Hong Kong shares chased the US market as the Federal Reserve gave an upbeat assessment of the US economy and said it would take a patient approach towards interest rate hikes.
Mainland indexes have gone up in the past six days.
Financials have led the rally that began in late November when the central bank cut interest rates.
Shares in Chinese brokers fell on Thursday after Shanghai Securities News reported that regulators criticised three brokerages for poor margin trading practices while carrying out inspections.
The CSI300 financials index finished the morning down 2.15 per cent, with Soochow Securities leading the fall with a decline of 7.5 per cent.
China’s benchmark money market rate rose above 4 per cent for the first time since July, in part indicating investors are hoarding cash for initial public offerings.
Seven IPOs began fund-raising this week after the securities regulator had on December 10 unexpectedly approved 12 issues.
Shares of China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) continued to soar, hitting the 10 per cent trading limit in Shanghai for the second day to reach their highest since May 2008.
China signed an agreement on Wednesday to build rail links between Belgrade and Budapest by mid-2015.
CRCC’s Hong Kong listed shares rose 2.1 per cent to a four-year high.
The index measuring price differences between dual-listed companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong edged down to 120.47. A value above 100 indicates Shanghai shares are pricing at a premium to shares in the same company trading in Hong Kong.
Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 23.63 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 9.97 billion shares.
Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.2 billion shares.
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