Finishing Off Worst Levels, CSI 300 Still Closes Lower

MNI (London) - Weakness for mainland Chinese equities stood out on Thursday, as the late ’23 weakness continued to be faded by bears.

• The CSI 300 shed 0.9%, recovering from lows during afternoon dealing.
• The Hang Seng finished little changed, after early losses were pared.
• Much firmer-than-expected Caixin services PMI data did little for wider sentiment.
• Real estate-related names struggled, with Fitch downgrading the outlook for a number of China national asset management companies on expectations of reduced government support.
• DBS’ view on Chinese airline names weighed on the sector.
• Wednesday’s uptick in crude oil futures provided some support for related names.
• The well-documented shipping disruptions and Middle East tension supported shipping names.
• From a more top-down perspective, continued focus on fiscal support did the rounds in the wake of comments from the Chinese Finance Minister.
• Meanwhile, a fresh downtick in 10-Year CGB yields will have aided the recovery into the close.
• Flow-wise, the HK China Stock Connect schemes generated net sales of 3.9bn for mainland equities.