China stocks ease, but losses curbed by another central bank rate cut

China stocks eased on Friday and were set for weekly declines amid lingering coronavirus worries, but losses were limited as Beijing pledged more support to shore up the world's second- largest economy.

** The CSI300 index fell 0.5% to 3,812.02 at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.6% to 2,820.58. ** For the week, SSEC was down 0.6%, while CSI300 shed 0.7%, outperforming MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.

** China's central bank cut the interest rate on its targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF) on Friday, following similar reductions to borrowing costs on other liquidity tools in the past few weeks to support the economy. ** "The role of TMLF as a low-cost alternative to MLF is diminishing, as there are various measures providing cheaper funding already," said Frances Cheung, head of Asia macro strategy at Westpac in Singapore.

** The day's losses were in line with other Asian markets, spurred by doubts about progress in developing drugs to treat COVID-19 and new evidence of U.S. economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. ** U.S. business activity plumbed record lows in April, mirroring dire figures from Europe and Asia as strict stay-at-home orders crushed production, supply chains and consumer spending, a survey showed.

** Bucking the broad retreat on Friday, China's new energy vehicle-related shares climbed as Beijing planned to extend subsidies for buying NEVs. ** China is stepping up measures to boost domestic demand, including the latest NEV subsidy extension plan, Everbright Securities noted in report.

** Long-term value investors could gradually buy stocks now, as A-shares' valuations are relatively low, the brokerage added. ** Mainland China reported six new coronavirus cases as of end-April 23, down from 10 reported a day earlier, putting the total number of COVID-19 infections at 82,804.

** In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.3%, to 23,911.34 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 0.2%, to 9,686.15.