SHANGHAI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Chinese blue-chips fell on Wednesday when the market resumed trade after a holiday, led by banking and consumer staples, while real-estate shares jumped as developer China Evergrande assured to settle interest payments on a domestic bond.
The blue-chip CSI300 index closed 0.7% lower at 4,821.77, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4% to 3,628.49 points.
China Evergrande Group’s main unit said it would make a coupon payment on its domestic bonds on Thursday, offering some relief to jittery markets worldwide.
The banking sub-index dropped 2.4%, while the real-estate index jumped 5.6% after opening down nearly 2%.
China Merchants Securities said in a note that the A-share market was not likely to continue to fall, citing the different structures of investors between the mainland and Hong Kong markets and policy space. They added that overseas investors took up more than 40% of the investors in the Hong Kong market.
Chinese A-share market resumed trade after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, while the Hong Kong market was shut on Wednesday for a public holiday.
The consumer staples and tourism companies declined 2.5% and 1.8%, respectively, amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
The energy sub-index surged 6% on higher coal prices.
The NEEQ Market Making Component Index, which tracks the most liquid equities traded on Beijing’s New Third Board on which the Beijing Stock Exchange is based, jumped over 6% to its highest since 2016 after Beijing bourse set investment threshold.
A sub-index tracking infrastructure rose 4.4%.