Shanghai, Hong Kong stocks slip as traders await any signs of progress in edgy US-China relations
- Traders are ‘very cautious,’ says Louis Tse Ming-kwong, managing director of VC Asset Management
- China blasts US as ‘solely to blame’ for breakdown in trade talks
It wasn’t a pretty first trading day of June.
Shanghai markets fell for the third straight day, while Hong Kong slipped for fourth consecutive session, as traders awaited any news of progress in US-China trade relations.
That gloomy start to June came after a painful May, when the Shanghai Composite posted its second straight month of losses and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index recorded its first monthly loss of the year.
“It is politics, not just economics. It is difficult to anticipate what is next,” said Louis Tse Ming-kwong, managing director of VC Asset Management. “At the moment it is very cautious, not optimistic,” and traders are mostly reacting to individual company news.
The Shanghai Composite lost 0.3 per cent to close at 2,890, while the Hang Seng closed down a hair – by 0.03 per cent – to 26,893.86. The last similar losing streaks for both bourses was at the end of April.
May felt the unravelling of what had seemed like a trade deal close to completion. It remains unclear whether a deal will come, with fresh criticism over the weekend from China, which said the US is “solely to blame’ for the collapse in trade negotiations.