China stocks edged up on Tuesday after the US benchmark S&P 500 touched a new high overnight, but lagged gains in other Asian markets as domestic investors awaited growth data and details on planned reforms.
China's main indexes moved in and out of positive territory all morning after a strong open.
The CSI300 index, helped by finance and manufacturing shares, rose 0.1 per cent, to 3,207.93 points at the end of the morning, while the Shanghai Composite Index was unchanged at 2,994.88 points.
China CSI300 stock index futures for July rose 0.2 per cent to 3,202.8 or 5.13 points below the current value of the underlying index.
GDP growth data
Analysts said the Chinese market was mostly in a holding pattern, waiting for more information on proposed reforms and second quarter GDP growth data on Friday.
“There hasn't been much a constant trend for the past few sessions,” said Zhang Gang, analyst at Central Securities in Shanghai.
“The market is essentially waiting for information, especially for further details on how announced structural reforms are going to play out in practice,” he said. “The Chinese market is a bit different, and doesn't receive as much influence from the global situation.”
China's second quarter GDP growth is expected to come in at 6.6 per cent on the year according to a Reuters poll of 61 economists. That would be the weakest figure in seven years.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index added 0.5 per cent to 20,985.77 points.
The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.4 per cent to 8,734.95.
The index measuring price differences between dual-listed companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong stood at 131.00.
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.
The northbound quota for the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect, currently set at 13 billion yuan, saw net inflows of 0.91 billion yuan.
Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 13.34 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 16.09 billion shares.
Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 0.7 billion shares.