China stocks edge down as economic woes offset Fed rate relief
By Summer Zhen
HONG KONG, Sept 19 (Reuters) -China shares dipped on Thursday as concerns over a fragile economic recovery offset any benefits seen from the Federal Reserve's overnight decision to cut interest rates by a larger-than-usual 50 basis points.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 and Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC both slipped 0.5% in early trade, while Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng .HSI was roughly flat.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday kicked off an anticipated series of interest rate cuts with a half-percentage-point reduction.
Investor sentiment towards Chinese equities remains subdued even though the U.S. rate cut provides room for fresh easing by Beijing to support its sputtering economy.
Yan Wang, chief emerging markets and China strategist at Alpine Macro, said while Fed rate cuts are generally positive for emerging market assets, China's domestic macroeconomic policies and growth outlook are far more critical than the Fed's actions.
"Unfortunately, the predictability of these factors remains quite poor," he said.
By sector, Hong Kong-listed mainland property stocks .HSMPI outperformed the broader market and was up 2.3%.
Tracking the U.S. central bank's move, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday cut its base rate charged via the overnight discount window by 50 basis points to 5.25%.
Hong Kong's monetary policy moves in lock-step with the United States as the city's currency HKD=D3 is pegged to the greenback in a tight range of 7.75-7.85 per dollar.
Reporting by Summer Zhen
Editing by Shri Navaratnam
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