BEIJING: China stocks slipped on Thursday in subdued trade as some investors awaited direction from coming economic data and others remained wary of the market in spite of government support.
In past weeks, Beijing has rolled out an unprecedented series of support measures, including cajoling Chinese brokerages and pension funds to buy stocks and cracking down on short-selling.
The CSI300 index fell 0.1 percent, to 3,861.74 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 percent, to 3,682.31 points.
China CSI300 stock index futures for August fell 0.2 percent, to 3,771.8, or 89.94 points below the current value of the underlying index.
“Investors don’t have strong interest to participate in the market as they don’t have confidence,” said Steven Leung, a director at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.
“They take a wait-and-see approach and watch out for new government policy, in particular those linking to economic and infrastructure-related areas,” Leung added.
Investors also want to see China’s July trade data, to be released on Saturday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.5 percent, to 24,404.38 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 0.1 percent, to 11,120.00.
Global exporter Li & Fung led the slide in the blue chip index, with the shares falling 3.9 percent to their lowest since January 2009.
The index measuring price differences between dual-listed companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong stood at 136.68.
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.
Under the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect scheme , a net 240 million yuan went northbound to Shanghai, a tiny fraction of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.
