Hang Seng rose after US-China trade truce ends

Hong Kong stocks clawed back early losses to end higher on Tuesday as Beijing confirmed that it is still in trade talks with Washington, but global anxiety over trade, Brexit and the arrest of a senior Huawei executive limited gains.

The Hang Seng index ended 0.1 per cent higher at 25,771.67 points, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.3 per cent, to close at 10,245.01 points. Trading volumes were low, with about 1.23 billion Hang Seng index shares traded, roughly 69.3 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.77 billion shares a day.

China and the United States discussed the roadmap for the next stage of their trade talks on Tuesday, during a telephone call between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies is set to return to a Vancouver courtroom on Tuesday, as the judge weighs final issues in determining whether she should be freed on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings. China has criticised her continued detention and demanded her immediate release.

"The short-term focus of Hong Kong shares are still on risk events like trade disputes, the Huawei incident and Brexit. Investors are taking more of a wait-and-see attitude and the market is awaiting good news," analysts at Guodu Hong Kong said in a note. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.7 per cent, while the IT sector rose 1.1 per cent. The financial sector and the property sector both fell 0.1 per cent.

The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, which gained 6.56 per cent, while the biggest loser was Want Want China Holdings Ltd, which fell 1.84 per cent. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.4 per cent at 2,594.09 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.5 per cent.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.11 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.34 per cent.

The yuan was quoted at 6.9009 per U.S. dollar at 08:17 GMT, 0.13 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.9099. The top gainers among H-shares were Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd up 4.24 per cent, followed by China Gas Holdings Ltd, gaining 3.2 per cent, and CRRC Corp Ltd, up by 2.61 per cent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Haitong Securities Co Ltd, which was down 3.66 per cent, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd, which fell 1.9 per cent and Huaneng Power International Inc, down by 1.8 per cent.

About 1.23 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 69.3 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.77 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.59 billion. At the close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 19.87 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.