Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday on concerns about tighter liquidity and a fresh slide in oil prices, but Hong Kong managed to eke out gains as telecommunications counters climbed.

The CSI300 index fell 0.8 per cent to 3,545.11 points by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index slid a similar amount to 3,324.96.

“Cyclical factors in the lead up to the Lunar New Year, including required regulatory payments and moves in fiscal deposits, are putting pressure on the short-term money supply in the market,’’ said Pan Shaochang, an analyst at Dongguan Securities.

“The expectations of new IPOs and restrictions on margin trading have also reduced net liquidity in the market.’’

The energy sub-index slumped 1.5 per cent and the financial and real estate sub-indexes were both down 1.2 per cent.

China CSI300 stock index futures for February fell 0.8 per cent to 3,555.2, 10.09 points above the current value of the underlying index.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 0.3 per cent to 24,889.02 points, buoyed by telecommunications, with industry heavyweight China Mobile rising 1.8 per cent.

The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.1 per cent to 12,047.31.

The index measuring price differences between dual-listed companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong stood at 127.33.

A value above 100 indicates Shanghai shares are pricing at a premium to shares in the same company trading in Hong Kong, and vice versa.

Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 15.79 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 9.14 billion shares.

Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 0.6 billion shares.

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