SHANGHAI: China’s major stock indexes fell on Wednesday, as trade worries intensified following a report that the United States could blacklist another Chinese tech firm after banning Huawei Technologies last week.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.5%, to 3,649.38, while the Shanghai Composite Index also ended down 0.5% at 2,891.70.
The U.S. administration is considering Huawei-like sanctions on Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision, media reports show, deepening worries that trade friction between the world’s top two economies could be further inflamed.
That came after the U.S. Commerce Department blocked Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from buying U.S. goods last week.
Beijing is ready to resume trade talks with Washington, China’s ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said, as a top U.S. business lobby in China said nearly half its members are seeing non-tariff barrier retaliation in China due to the trade war.
Foreign investors continued to retreat via the Stock Connect linking Hong Kong and the mainland, selling more than 4 billion yuan ($578.87 million) worth of mainland shares on Wednesday. They have so far sold more than 40 billion yuan worth of A-shares in May.
Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.09%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 0.05%.
At 07:14 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.9105 per U.S. dollar, 0.11% weaker than the previous close of 6.9028.
The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Ningbo Bird Co Ltd, up 10.05%, followed by Shanghai Wondertek Software Co Ltd, which gained 10.02% and Hunan Copote Science Technology Co Ltd that rose 10.01%.
The largest percentage losers in the Shanghai index were Zhejiang Dibay Electric Co Ltd, down 9.98%, followed by Yuancheng Environment Co Ltd that shed 6.92% and Guangxi Wuzhou Communications Co Ltd which lost 6.87%.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 16% and the CSI300 has risen 21.2%, while China’s H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 4.8%. Shanghai stocks have declined 6.06% this month.
As of 07:15 GMT, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 24.27% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. - Reuters
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