Hong Kong stocks ease as investors await hints of further policy support

Hong Kong stocks eased on Monday, as investors stayed on the sidelines awaiting hints of further policy support to offset impacts of U.S.-China trade war and cooling domestic demand, amid worries about the economy. At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 65.84 points, or 0.24%, at 27,288.09. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.41% to 10,402.76.

The biggest loser on the Hang Seng was Want Want China Holdings Ltd, which fell 2.41%, while the top gainer was Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd, rising 6.93%. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.6%, while the IT sector dipped 0.16%, the financial sector ended 0.04% lower and the property sector dipped 0.21%. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 1.38% at 2,892.38, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 1.2%.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.08%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.31%. The yuan was quoted at 6.8956 per U.S. dollar at 08:12 GMT, 0.07% firmer than the previous close of 6.9005. The top gainers among H-shares were China Tower Corp Ltd up 4.17%, followed by Huaneng Power International Inc , gaining 4.12% and CGN Power Co Ltd, up by 3.4%.

The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Hengan International Group Company Ltd, which was down 1.73%, PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd, which fell 1.6% and China Telecom Corp Ltd, down by 1.5%. About 1.30 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 72.9% of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.79 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.73 billion. At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 26.91% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.