Live | China Markets Live - Hong Kong shares finish quietly weaker as trade looks to US jobs data
Chinese markets out on holiday, will reopen Monday. US jobs figure may give lead on timing of rate increases by Federal Reserve
Welcome to the SCMP's live markets blog. The intense volatility of recent weeks has every chance of remaining the core underlying theme of activity. Investors are increasingly focused the broader question of how this episode might affect the wider economy as many suspect the equity bubble has yet to fully deflate. We'll bring you the key levels, trading statements, price action and other developments as they happen.
Here’s a summary of market action yesterday and today, with analyst views:
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng index settles slightly lower
- Chinese markets closed Thursday and Friday for holidays, reopens Monday
- Investors look toward US jobs data due out on Friday, US markets shut Monday for Labor Day
- Japan shares finish lower, post 4th straight week of declines
4:07pm: The Hang Seng Index closes at 20,840.61, down 0.45 per cent or 94.34 points. The H-shares index finished at 9,169.59, off 1.42 per cent or 131.73 points.
4:03pm: The shipping and logistics sector traded 1.2 per cent up in Hong Kong’s stock market today, after talk spread amongst market players that China Merchants Group would merge with Sinotrans & CSC.
China Merchant Holdings gained 3. 067 per cent to trade at HK$25.2 with a turnover of 180.79 million, while Sinotrans and Sinotrans Shipping saw an increase of 11.246 per cent and 7.534 per cent in their share prices as of 3:55 pm.
3:12pm: Hong Kong-listed property developers also had a tough day, with the whole sector trading down 1.11 per cent as of 2:44 pm.