Hong Kong stocks end higher on China trade surprise, firmer yuan

Hong Kong stocks climbed on Thursday, tracking broader Asia, as China reported surprisingly strong trade numbers and capped the yuan's fall, offering a brief respite from fears of a global currency war. The Hang Seng index rose 0.5%, to 26,120.77, while the China Enterprises Index also gained 0.5%, to 10,041.62. China's exports unexpectedly rose in July, growing 3.3% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Thursday, beating analysts' estimate of a 2% fall.

China's central bank on Thursday set its official yuan midpoint below the key 7/dollar threshold for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis. Still, the yuan fixing was stronger than markets had feared and supported Asian equities broadly. State banks were also seen supporting the currency earlier this week. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.74%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.37%. The yuan was quoted at 7.0443 per U.S. dollar at 08:14 GMT, 0.22% firmer than the previous close of 7.0596.

The top gainers among H-shares were Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd up 7.05%, followed by Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, gaining 3.61% and Huatai Securities Co Ltd, up by 2.61%. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were New China Life Insurance Co Ltd, which was down 0.28%, CITIC Ltd, which fell 0.21% and Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd, down 0.2%.

About 1.71 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 125.6% of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.36 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.72 billion. At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 29.65% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)