China stocks dip weighed by policy tightening concerns; Hang Seng up

China stocks dropped on Wednesday on worries that policy makers would shift to a tighter stance to cool gains in share prices and property markets after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

China stocks dropped on Wednesday on worries that policy makers would shift to a tighter stance to cool gains in share prices and property markets after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. ** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.03% at 3,568.40 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.08%. ** The blue-chip index's consumer staples sector was down 1.8%. The real estate index fell 0.41% and the healthcare sub-index dropped 0.34%. ** The smaller Shenzhen index dipped 0.2% and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR50 index was down 1.53%​. The start-up board ChiNext Composite index gained 0.27% ** China will not exit from supporting policy prematurely, said Yi Gang, the governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), at a virtual meeting of World Economic Forum on Tuesday. ** Still, investors interpreted that as a looming exit of easier monetary policies after the Lunar New Year holiday and sold off over-valued stocks as their fundamentals do not support the price without stimulus, said Wendy Liu, UBS' head of China strategy. ** The central bank has rolled out a raft of measures, including cuts in interest rates and reserve ratios since early-2020 to support the virus-hit economy, but it has shifted to a steadier stance in recent months as the recovery solidified. ** Markets shrugged off data showing profits at China's industrial firms grew for the eighth straight month in December, which suggested a sustained recovery from the COVID-19 slump. ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong rose 0.25% to 11,724.14, while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.21% at 29,454.02. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index fell 1.57%, while Japan's Nikkei index gained 0.31%. (Reporting Cheng Leng in Beijing and Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)

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