China stocks fall despite encouraging service activity data; HK shares down

** Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 0.5%. ** China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in five months thanks to a solid rise in new business, a private-sector survey showed on Thursday.

Chinese stocks fell on Thursday, dragged by liquor companies, despite a private survey showing the country's December services activity expanded at quickest pace in five months.

** China's blue-chip CSI 300 Index dropped 1.4% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.9%. ** Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 0.5%.

** China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in five months thanks to a solid rise in new business, a private-sector survey showed on Thursday. ** However, this encouraging data alone is unlikely to significantly lift market sentiment given the broad macro weakness in the property sector and consumer prices, UBS analysts said in a note.

** Liquor stocks fell 2.3% and led declines, with Luzhou Laojiao and Kweichou Moutai down 3.2% and 1.6%, respectively. ** Foreign capital recorded a net outflow of 6.5 billion yuan ($908.4 million) via the northbound trading link, on track to log the largest daily outflow in three weeks.

** Global long-only funds offloaded Chinese equities at the fastest pace of 2023 in December as they rushed to meet redemption requests and to diversify away from the world's second-largest economy, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. ** Hong Kong-listed tech stocks did not follow the overnight rally in their U.S. counterparts, falling 0.5%.

** Alibaba rose only 0.5%, compared to a 2.5% increase in its American depositary receipts traded in New York. ** Meanwhile, shares of Meituan and Tencent declined 1.8% and 0.2%，respectively. ($1 = 7.1558 Chinese yuan renminbi)