- Chinese commercial banks kept their one- and five-year loan prime rates unchanged at today’s monthly setting
- Stronger than expected US economic reports are challenging recent views about the likely end-date of the Fed’s tightening cycle
Hong Kong stocks fell in early trading after Chinese lenders refrained from cutting their lending rates to spur the housing market while traders contained risk appetite as economic data challenged bets for an early end to the US policy tightening cycle.
The Hang Seng Index slipped 0.4 percent to 20,631.91 as of 9.45 am local time. The benchmark index has retreated 8.7 percent since the rally from late October peaked on January 27. The Tech Index dropped 0.5 percent while the Shanghai Composite Index lowered 0.3 percent.
Tencent fell 0.6 percent to HK$371.60, Alibaba Group dropped 0.7 percent to HK$98.80 and carmaker BYD lost 2.9 percent to HK$223. WuXi Biologics declined 1.1 percent to HK$56.05 while electric vehicle maker BYD fell 0.7 percent to HK$228. Limiting losses, China Mobile jumped 3 percent to HK$59.15.
What moved the Hang Seng Index?
China’s one-year loan prime rate was unchanged at 3.65 percent, Xinhua reported on Monday, citing the National Interbank Funding Center. The five-year rate, on which commercial banks price their mortgage rates, also stayed unmoved at 4.3 percent, dampening hopes for fresh support for the housing market.
“The recent euphoria seems to be wearing off,” said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong. “China’s post-covid reopening seems mixed at best, and hopes for a consumer explosion have muted.
Elsewhere, stronger than expected US reports, including consumer and producer prices in January, are forcing investors to push the end of the Federal Reserve’s tightening moves further out. US policymakers had downshifted to smaller rate increases over the past two policy meetings.
Markets “will unlikely like this uncertainty,” Nomura analysts including Chetan Seth and Ankit Yadav wrote in a note to clients on Monday. “Thus we expect some volatility until a trend in the data is formed again.”
Other major Asian markets were flat in early trading. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent while the Nikkei 225 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 were little changed.
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