China Investors Turn Cautious Ahead of Finance Minister's Saturday Briefing

Li Chen
11 Oct, 2024
Hong Kong

Market sentiment was cautious ahead of the finance minister's conference on Saturday as investors awaited more clarity on stimulus measures. 

The CSI 300 index decreased 2.4%, setting the stage for the first weekly loss in four weeks. 

Financial markets in Hong Kong are closed for a public holiday and will resume trading on Monday. 

Stock market indexes in mainland China and Hong Kong have soared over the last four weeks after the People's Bank of China announced monetary measures to revive investor confidence. 

Moreover, three weeks ago, top political leaders signaled the release of additional fiscal measures to revive consumption and support the moribund residential property market. 

However, investors have been let down in the past by politicians with piecemeal measures that do little to revive consumer confidence. 

Chinese politicians and regulators have a history of announcing bold reforms and wild projections, which have not been followed up with real reforms. 

Politicians are struggling to deliver deep fiscal measures that will require financial commitments of between $2 trillion and $3 trillion and approval from the National People's Congress. 

Investors are hoping that Finance Minister Lao Fan at Saturday's conference will announce significant measures to pump liquidity into the real economy, including bond sales and measures to revive consumption. 

 

China Stock Movers 

The CSI 300 index declined 2.4% to 3,905.40, and the SSE Composite index decreased 1.9%. 

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. declined 5.4% to ¥244.07, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. dropped 4.5% to ¥71.37. 

China Vanke declined 1.4% to ¥9.25, China Shenhua Energy fell 1.5% to ¥42.32, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical fell 0.7% to ¥2.89.