HONG Kong stocks ended higher on Wednesday in lacklustre trade, as caution prevailed ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit this week.
The Hang Seng index ended up 0.1% at 28,221.98 points, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.2% to 10,766.06 points.
Trump views the meeting as a chance to see where Beijing stands on the two countries’ trade war, and is “comfortable with any outcome” from the talks, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
The United States hopes to re-launch trade talks with China after Trump and Xi meet in Japan on Saturday, but Washington will not accept any conditions around the U.S. use of tariffs in the dispute, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.
Eyes were also on the U.S. Fed, which tapered expectations in the markets for aggressive monetary easing.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday said the U.S. central bank is “insulated from short-term political pressures,” and that its policymakers are wrestling with whether to cut interest rates as President Donald Trump has demanded.
Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.05%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed down 0.51%.
The yuan was quoted at 6.8858 per U.S. dollar at 0814 GMT, 0.1% weaker than the previous close of 6.8786.
About 1.48 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 77% of the market’s 30-day moving average of 1.92 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.91 billion.
At close, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.98% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares. - Reuters
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