Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index ends flat, China's H-shares index edges up

Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index ended flat on Wednesday, while the China H-shares index rose, as optimism over stimulus measures to boost economic growth in China offset concerns about the tepid outlook for trade and global economy.   At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 2.75 points or 0.01 percent at 27,008.20 points. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.17 percent to 10,631.03. China will step up fiscal spending this year to support its economy, focusing on further cuts in taxes and fees for small firms, finance ministry officials said on Wednesday.

The Trump administration has rejected an offer from China for preparatory trade talks this week ahead of high-level negotiations scheduled for next week, the Financial Times reported, hurting market sentiment. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow denied the report.  The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares ended down 1.2 percent, while the IT sector dipped 0.69 percent, the financial sector ended 0.1 percent lower and the property sector closed up 0.79 percent. The top gainer on the Hang Seng was China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd, which gained 4.27 percent, while the biggest drag was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, which closed 3.15 percent weaker. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.05 percent at 2,581.00 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.07 percent.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.08 percent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.14 percent. The yuan was quoted at 6.7874 per U.S. dollar at 0825 GMT, 0.3 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.8076.  The top gainers among H-shares were China Telecom Corp Ltd , which ended up 5.31 percent, followed by China Tower Corp Ltd, which closed 5 percent firmer and Great Wall Motor Co Ltd, which closed up 3.91 percent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were CNOOC Ltd, which ended down 2.47 percent, ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd, which closed 1.6 percent lower and China Pacific Insurance Group Co Ltd, which ended down 1.5 percent. 

(With inputs from agencies.)