Chinese stocks rose on Tuesday morning as investors bought oversold shares after three days of losses, but uncertainty is capping the gains ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between the Chinese and US presidents at the G20 summit this week.
At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was up 10.93 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 2,586.74. The index has lost 2.9 per cent over the previous three sessions. China's blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.43 per cent, with its financial sector sub-index 0.45 per cent higher, the consumer staples sector up 0.19 per cent, the real estate index down 0.07 per cent and the healthcare sub-index up 0.12 per cent.
But despite the gains on Tuesday, expectations for a de-escalation in trade tensions between the US and China dimmed after US President Donald Trump said he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to 25 per cent, from 10 per cent at present. He also repeated a threat to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China.
Profit growth at China's industrial firms slumped for a sixth straight month in October as demand cooled further amid mounting uncertainties stemming from the US-China trade war. Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong squeaked higher by 0.02 per cent to 10,523.12, but the Hang Seng Index fell 0.09 per cent to 26,351.56.
The smaller Shenzhen index was up 0.62 per cent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 1.06 per cent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.16 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index was up 0.58 per cent. The yuan was quoted at 6.9448 per US dollar, 0.06 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.9405.
The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Guangxi Guidong Electric Power Co Ltd, up 10.13 per cent, followed by ARTS Group Co Ltd, gaining 10 per cent and Shanghai Xinhua Media Co Ltd, up by 9.97 per cent. The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Beihai Gofar Marine Biological Industry Co Ltd, down 7.73 per cent, followed by Sichuan Golden Summit Group Joint Stock Co Ltd, losing 7.66 per cent and Shanghai DaZhong Public Utilities Group Co Ltd, down by 5.84 per cent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 22.11 per cent, while China's H-share index is down 10.1 per cent. Shanghai stocks have declined 1.04 per cent this month. The top gainers among H-shares were Byd Co Ltd, up 3.57 per cent, followed by China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd , gaining 2.45 per cent and China Huarong Asset Management Co Ltd, up by 1.95 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Huaneng Power International Inc, which has fallen 1.86 per cent, China Pacific Insurance Group Co Ltd, which has lost 1.6 per cent and CGN Power Co Ltd, down by 1.5 per cent.
About 7.06 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 39.5 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 17.87 billion shares a day. The volume traded was 13.43 billion as of the last full trading day. As of 04:19 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 16.41 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
In Hong Kong, the sub-index of the Hang Seng index tracking energy shares dipped 0.4 per cent, while the IT sector rose 1.1 per cent. The top gainer on the Hang Seng was AAC Technologies Holdings Inc, up 1.78 per cent, while the biggest loser was Want Want China Holdings Ltd, which was down 2.54 per cent.