HK Stocks Higher, China Trade Surplus Grows, Third Plenum Next Week

China & Hong Kong's equity markets are mixed today, HK markets are out-performing as investors reacted to the latest U.S. inflation data, which indicated a slowdown and raised hopes for a rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Chinese markets are slightly lower today as investors await the start of the Third Plenum policy meetings, property stocks have surged higher as investors expect China to announce additional support for the struggle sector at the meeting. Earlier, China's trade surplus grew to the highest levels since at least 1990.

• Hong Kong equities are higher today with the HSTech Index up 1.75% and now trades up 4.55% for the past week. Property indices have surged higher with the Mainland Property Index up 4.10% and now trades off just 1.10% for the week after being down as much as 8% at one stage, the HS Property Index is 4.80% higher today and now 5.30% higher on the week, while the wider HSI is 2% higher.
• China equity markets are mixed today with the CSI 300 down 0.20%, small-cap indices the CSI 1000 down 0.60% and the CSI 2000 up 0.55%, while the growth focused ChiNext is 0.10% lower.
• The CSRC clamped down on short selling to support the sliding stock market, leading to concerns about further deterioration in liquidity, as trading volumes were already at an 18-month low. Despite this, analysts suggest that such restrictions may ultimately impair liquidity and fail to support asset prices, particularly affecting small-cap stocks, as per BBG.