China stocks rise after Sino-U.S. 'candid' talks; Hong Kong gains

China stocks rose on Friday after U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's "candid" conversation, with Hong Kong shares gaining after a rebound in tech companies.

China stocks rose on Friday after U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's "candid" conversation, with Hong Kong shares gaining after a rebound in tech companies. The CSI300 index rose 1.0% to 5,020.24 at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4% to 3,709.05.

The Hang Seng index added 1.7% to 26,139.24. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 2.0% to 9,370.19. ** Biden and Xi spoke on the phone for the first time since February, and both discussed the need to avoid letting competition between the world's two largest economies veer into conflict, a senior U.S. official said.

** The official said the tone of their conversation was both "familiar" and "candid", and Chinese state media described it as "a broad, candid, in-depth and strategic conversation." ** The semiconductors sub-index led the gains in China market, jumping 5.2%.

** A sub-index tracking brokerages rose 1.9% to its highest in nearly eight months amid China's plan to set up a new bourse in Beijing. Banks gained 2.6%. ** The energy sub-index slumped 3.9%, after China's state reserves administration said it would release crude oil reserves to the market via a public auction, to ease the pressure of high feedstock costs on domestic refiners.

** In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Tech Index rebounded 2.6% after falling the most in six weeks in the previous session. ** Tech giants Meituan, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings added 5.2%, 3.7% and 1.7%, respectively.

** The Hang Seng Finance Index and the Hang Seng Commerce & Industry Index advanced 1.4% and 2%, respectively.