China stocks weakened on Wednesday morning amid signs slowing economic growth and year-end liquidity tightness. Hong Kong shares rose slightly as the market reopened after the Christmas holiday.
Earnings at China's industrial firms grew at their slowest pace in seven months in November, official data showed. Separately, growth in wages and hiring slowed at industrial firms, according to a survey by the China Beige Book International (CBB).
Meanwhile, benchmark rates in the banking systems keep climbing in signs of liquidity stress. The one-month Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) climbed to 4.93 per cent on Wednesday, the highest level since April, 2015. At 04:24 GMT, the Shanghai Composite index was down 4.34 points or 0.13 per cent at 3,301.79.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.55 per cent, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.85 per cent, the consumer staples sector down 0.59 per cent, the healthcare sub-index down 0.97 per cent and real estate index up 0.03 per cent.
Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong rose 0.24 per cent to 11,680.95, while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.03 per cent at 29,586.32. The smaller Shenzhen index was unchanged for the day and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.17 per cent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was up 0.18 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index advanced 0.10 per cent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.5554 per US dollar, 0.16 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.545. The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Anhui Leimingkehua Co Ltd up 9.99 per cent, followed by B aotailong New Materials Co Ltd gaining 8.19 per cent and Wenyi Suntech Co Ltd up 7.82 per cent. The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Shanghai AJ Group Co Ltd down 7.53 per cent, Hainan HNA Infrastructure Investment Group Co Ltd off 7.08 per cent and BOCO Inter-Telecom Co Ltd down 5 per cent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 6.52 per cent, while China's H-share index is up 24.0 per cent. Shanghai stocks have declined 0.33 per cent this month. The top gainers among H-shares were CRRC Corp Ltd up 3.42 per cent, followed by China Vanke Co Ltd gaining 3.01 per cent and Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd up 2.76 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd off 2.23 per cent, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd down 1.7 per cent and China Telecom Corp Ltd 1.3 per cent lower.
About 9.01 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 58.2 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 15.48 billion shares a day. The volume traded was 14.24 billion as of the last full trading day. As of 04:24 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 30.33 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and above its 200-day moving average. The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 14.87 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 1.9 per cent. So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 0.18 per cent to 28.85 trillion yuan.
In Hong Kong, the sub-index of the Hang Seng index tracking energy shares rose 1.8 per cent, while the IT sector fell 1.2 per cent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd up 6.42 per cent, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd which was down 5.98 per cent.