China stocks edge higher as Beijing's manufacturing activity returns to growth
SHANGHAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) -China and Hong Kong stocks edged higher on Thursday, led by property shares, as the country's manufacturing activities returned to growth in October, while traders await a key leadership meeting for details on more potential stimulus.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 edged up 0.2% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC rose 0.4%. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index .HSI climbed 0.5%.
China's manufacturing activity in October expanded for the first time in six months, an official factory survey showed earlier in the day.
"I expect the economic momentum to improve moderately in Q4 as monetary and fiscal policies loosened," said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
"We will find out more hints from Beijing on the policy outlook after the U.S. election," said Zhang.
Property shares .CSI000948, .HSMPI led the gains in both onshore and offshore markets, up 3.8% and 2.6%, respectively.
Investor sentiment towards China's equity market has cooled since mid-October, following a sharp rally in late September. Market focus is now on next week's National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) meeting and the U.S. election.
"China onshore mutual fund investors think it's difficult to set up a huge size fiscal stimulus target which will break deficit in short term," UBS analysts said in a note to investors.
In the NPCSC next week, the sustainability and transparency of fiscal policy will be more important to sustain the upward equity market trend, the analysts from UBS said, adding that investors think more meaningful fiscal policy should be released at the Central Economic Work Conference in December.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported China has told its automakers to halt big investment in European countries that support extra tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles.
Shares of Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD 1211.HK 002594.SZ dropped in both China and Hong Kong even as the company posted an 11.5% rise in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday and its quarterly revenue outpaced Tesla for the first time.
China stocks rally strongly https://reut.rs/3ZQNtV0
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Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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