Traders cautiously await signals from US Federal Reserve, leaving China and Hong Kong stocks treading water

Mainland and Hong Kong benchmark indexes were little changed in early trading Monday, as traders weighed uncertainties over the US-China trade war and awaited highly anticipated comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell about interest rates later this week.

Both the Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite Index were essentially flat.

China Tower rose 3.7 per cent, and is now 15 per cent above its initial public offering price when it began trading in Hong Kong on August 8. The operator of telecommunications towers for the world’s biggest cellular phone networks rallied after Beijing awarded China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom 5G spectrum licences. The step was seen as showing that China will put national resources behind its 5G roll-out.

Meanwhile, shares of China auto companies were pounded on the first trading day since China announced late Friday that it was temporarily lifting a 25 per cent surcharge on imports of US-made cars. The three-month reprieve will help US automakers like Tesla, which had raised prices of its models in the world’s largest auto market in the wake of the new duties. Soon after the announcement Friday, Tesla said it was cutting its prices in the mainland.

Geely Auto dropped 2.8%, while electronic car components and batteries maker BYD fell 3.3%.