China stocks fall as growth, trade concerns continue to weigh; HK up
SHANGHAI, Aug 22 (Reuters) - China stocks fell on Wednesday, weighed down by persistent economic concerns and worries over the outlook for trade ahead of lower-level talks between Washington and Beijing.
** China's central bank on Tuesday said it will not resort to strong stimulus to support the slowing economy but will keep liquidity reasonably ample and offer more help to companies which are having trouble obtaining financing. ** Meetings expected to take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington are the first formal U.S.-China trade talks since June, but U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not expect much progress from the talks.
** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 14.11 points or 0.52 percent to 2,719.72. ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.45 percent, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 0.2 percent, the consumer staples sector down 0.69 percent, the real estate index down 0.25 percent and the healthcare sub-index down 0.62 percent.
** Healthcare and consumer firms have been battered in recent weeks amid a vaccine scandal that has hurt consumer confidence. ** On Tuesday, Changsheng Bio-Technology said it would delay reporting H1 results due to vaccine-related investigations.
** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong rose 1.1 percent at 10,858.21 while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.51 percent at 27,895.50. ** The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.77 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.7 percent.
** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.26 percent while Japan's Nikkei index was up 0.59 percent.
** The yuan was quoted at 6.8417 per U.S. dollar, 0.14 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.8513.
** The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Hainan Haiqi Transportation Group Co Ltd up 10.04 percent, followed by Delixi Xinjiang Transportation Co Ltd gaining 10.02 percent and Anhui Great Wall Military Industry Co Ltd up by 10 percent.
** The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Gansu Gangtai Holding Group Co Ltd down 10.05 percent, followed by Shanghai Jahwa United Co Ltd losing 9.99 percent and Shangying Global Co Ltd down by 9.98 percent.
** So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 17.34 percent, while China's H-share index is down 8.3 percent. Shanghai stocks have declined 4.96 percent this month.
** The top gainers among H-shares were China Resources Land Ltd up 4.9 percent, followed by Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd gaining 4.9 percent and Byd Co Ltd up by 4 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were CGN Power Co Ltd which has fallen 5.5 percent, Huaneng Power International Inc which has lost 3.2 percent and ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance Co Ltd down by 2.6 percent.
** About 5.56 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 40.7 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 13.68 billion shares a day. The volume traded was 11.36 billion as of the last full trading day.
** As of 04:14 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 16.21 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
** The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and below its 200-day moving average.
** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 11.87 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.7 percent.
** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 2.53 percent to 29.06 trillion yuan.
** In Hong Kong, the sub-index of the Hang Seng index tracking energy shares rose 2 percent while the IT sector rose 1.8 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was China Resources Land Ltd up 4.9 percent, while the biggest loser was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd which was down 2.6 percent.
(Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Sunil Nair)
