Hong Kong shares end flat; H-shares fall 0.3 pct

Shares in Hong Kong ended unchanged on Monday after a long holiday weekend, while H-shares lagged as a promise of policy fine-tuning from a top-level meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping added to investor worries over a slower pace of easing in China. ** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down just 0.02 points at 29,963.24. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.32 percent to 11,731.02.

H-shares followed mainland indexes lower after the official Xinhua News Agency said China should fine-tune monetary policy "in a timely and pre-emptive way based on economic growth and changes in price situations," citing the meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping. The report echoed comments from the Politburo, State Council and the central bank in the past two weeks.

China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.51 per cent at 3,198.59, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.16 per cent. ** Stronger oil prices helped lift the sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares up 0.6 percent, while the IT sector rose 0.42 percent, the financial sector ended 0.06 percent higher and the property sector dipped 0.91 percent.

The top gainer on the Hang Seng was WH Group Ltd, which rose 4.23 per cent, while the biggest loser was Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd, which fell 2.95 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 up 0.19 per cent. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.7187 per U.S. dollar at 08:24 GMT, 0.1 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.7122.

The top gainers among H-shares were China Tower Corp Ltd up 3.64 per cent, followed by Hengan International Group Company Ltd gaining 3.22 per cent, and Huaneng Power International Inc, up by 1.68 per cent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Air China Ltd, which was down 6.57 per cent, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, which fell 6.0 per cent and Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd, down by 4.8 per cent.