China & HK Equities Higher As Tech & Property Gain

Hong Kong and China equities are higher today. Property names are benefitting from another city removing restrictions on home buying, following on from last week when Shenzhen relaxed rules, while Hong Kong markets have been supported after comments from HK Exchange CEO where he mentioned IPO's will be coming back and already have 100 applicants in the pipeline. Earlier we had China trade figures for April saw export growth rise 1.5% y/y, close to expectations (1.3%), but comfortably above the prior month's -7.5% pace.

• Hong Kong equities are higher today with the HSTech Index up 1.92%, the index is now up 31.26% from lows mad in Feb. The Mainland Property Index fell about 4% on Wednesday but has recovered most of that today, up 3.13%, the wider HS Index is up 1.23%. China onshore markets are also higher today with the CSI300 up 1%, while small-cap and growth indices outperform large-cap with the CSI1000 up 1.64% and the ChiNext up 1.85%.
• China Northbound saw a -4.0b yuan outflow on Wednesday Equity flow momentum has dropped over the past few days with 5-day average now at 1.08b, still slightly above the 20-day average at 0.65b and the 100-day average at 0.67b yuan.
• China trade figures for April saw export growth rise 1.5% y/y, close to expectations (1.3%), but comfortably above the prior month's -7.5% pace. Imports were stronger than forecast though, up 8.4% y/y (4.7% forecast and -1.9% prior). The trade surplus was below expectations, printing at $72.35bn, largely due to the import beat.
• In the property space, the city of Hangzhou has lifted all restrictions on residential property purchases, effective immediately, as announced by the local housing bureau. The city also plans to enhance credit support for the property sector, which includes offering reduced mortgage payments for select homebuyers. Additionally, Hangzhou will discontinue the practice of reviewing the qualifications of potential homebuyers.
• Looking forward, PPI & CPI on Saturday