Click to enlarge the chart below (percentages are against today’s opening).

 

3:35pm: MTR Corporation leads the Hang Seng Index gainers, up 1.59 per cent to HK$35.20. In the latest analyst assessments, BoA Merrill Lynch maintained MTR at neutral with target cut to HK$36.50 while Nomura maintained it at buy with target lifted to HK$42.15. 

Yesterday, the Hong Kong rail operator confirmed its HK$6 billion order for new trains from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, also announcing that six tenders were received for its property development project at Yuen Long Station. 

The below chart shows MTR (orange) tracking fairly consistently against the Hang Seng Index this year.

3:10pm: The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.89 per cent to finish at 3,661.54 and the CSI 300 index closed weaker at 3,831.85, down 0.91 per cent. 

3:10pm: In Shenzhen stocks traded down for most of day and the Shenzhen Composite index dropped 0.69 per cent to end at 2,113.65. The ChiNext index fell 0.84 per cent to 2,480.93. 

3:10pm:Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.62 per cent at 24,361.12. The H-share index is 0.23 per cent weaker at 11,099.94.  

2:40pm: Finsoft Financial Investment Holdings has shot up 58 per cent to 34.5 HK cents to be Hong Kong’s top percentage gainer. The company, which provides trading software and other financial services and platforms, issued a statement saying it was unaware of any reasons for the price movement other than its possible acquisition of a software developer.

2:34pm: People’s Bank of China has injected a total of 568.9 billion yuan into China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China for the first half of the year to help the pair weather an economic downturn, financial magazine Caixin reports citing sources. That has made the central bank among the top three shareholders of the two banks.

2:30pm: Barclays maintains an Overweight position on Standard Chartered with a target price of HK$138 after the bank reported earnings. But Barclays' analysts warn earnings trend remains weak and is likely to deteriorate further. 

“Earnings were particularly weak and this seems likely to continue and we have cut forecasts c40 per cent in 2015 and 2016. Provisions stepped up from an already elevated level and reflect underlying credit quality deterioration rather than any catch up. Income was also weak, reflecting a combination of disposals, price competition and a change in Standard Chartered’s focus from volume to returns,” it said. 

Standard Chartered fell 2.3 per cent to HK$114.3 in Hong Kong. Click Chart to see its intraday performance (orange) vs. Hang Seng Index (percentage shown is against today’s opening). Click to enlarge.

 

2:07pm: Shenzhen Composite Index stands at 2,105.50, down 1.08 per cent or 22.91 points. ChiNext falls 1.11 per cent, or 27.68 points, to 2,474.36.

2:06pm: Shanghai Composite Index loses 1.405 per cent, or 51.91 points to 3,642.66. CSI300 Index slides 1.202 per cent, or 46.49 points to 3,820.41.

2:05pm: Hang Seng Index drops 0.67 per cent, or 163.71points, to 24,350.45. H-shares Index stands at 11,096.08, down 0.27 per cent, or 29.76 points. 

1:55pm: C.Banner International Holdings, the second largest retailer of middle-to-high-end women’s formal and leisure footwear in mainland China, said Nobel Prize Winner for Economics, Dr. Myron Scholes, has bought company stock but did not disclose the details of price or number of shares.

Scholes, a Canadian-American economist, is an Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 with Professor Robert Merton of Harvard for their contribution in developing the technology to value derivatives.

Three month chart of C. Banner follows below. Click to enlarge.

1:53pm: China Railway Group (orange), China Rail Construction Corporation (green) and Guangshen Railway (purple) outperform the H-shares index (blue) to reach 5-day highs on news state banks will pump 1.5 trillion yuan into infrastructure development. Click to enlarge.

1:08pm: Shenzhen Composite Index opens its afternoon session at 2,125.09, down 0.16 per cent or 3.33 points. ChiNext sheds 0.38 per cent, or 9.57 points, to 2,492.48.

1:07pm: Shanghai Composite Index adds 0.184 per cent, or 6.8 points to 3,687.77 at open of afternoon trade. CSI300 Index rises 0.017 per cent, or 0.66 points to 3,866.24.

1:06pm: Hang Seng Index falls 0.44 per cent, or 108.01points, to 24,406.15 at the open of afternoon trade. H-shares Index stands at 11,118.37, down 0.07 per cent, or 7.47 points.

12:44pm: Performance of Hang Seng Index and Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. Click graph to enlarge.

12:42pm: Tencent and Ping An Insurance were the most traded stocks in Hong Kong's market in the morning, followed by China Mobile, China Construction Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China. Tencent and Ping An fell sharply while the other three stocks were unchanged or slightly up.

Click graph to enlarge (percentages are against today’s opening):

 

12:31pm: The amount of new non-performing loans in China for the first half soared 35.7 per cent year on year at 1.8 trillion yuan, already exceeding that of the total amount in 2014, financial magazine Caixin reports.

China Bank Regulatory Commission will make preventing growth of bad loans as its top priority in credit risk control for the rest of the year, Caixin reports citing senior bank regulatory officials.   

12:17pm: The Hang Seng Index closed the morning at 24,404.38, down 0.45 per cent or 109.78 points. The H-share index stands at 11,120.00, down 0.05 per cent or 5.84 points.

12:16pm: China stocks fell again in the morning. Shenzhen (orange), Shanghai (purple), CSI300 (green) and ChiNext (blue) all lost ground.  

Click to enlarge the chart below (percentages are against today’s opening).

11:43am: The Shanghai Composite Index closed the morning at 3,682.31, down 12.26 points or 0.33 per cent. The CSI300 closed at 3,861.74, down 5.16 points or 0.13 per cent. 

11:43am: The Shenzhen Composite Index closed at 2,122.2, down 6.22 points or 0.29 per cent. The ChiNext Price Index went to 2489.98, down 12.06 points or 0.48 per cent.

11:34am:The Hang Seng Index trades at 24,378.78, down 0.55 per cent or 135.38 points. The H-share index stands at 11,107.72, down 0.16 per cent or 18.12 points.

11:21am: Tencent is Hong Kong’s most traded stock in dollar terms as it slips 0.84 per cent to HK$141.20, knocking off a day-high 22 points from the Hang Seng Index. Credit Suisse has just reiterated its ‘outperform’ rating for Tencent, cutting its target price to HK$180. 

Click to expand this view of Tencent’s stock price against the Hang Seng (purple) over the past six months.

11:19am: Onshore spot yuan is trading at 6.2086 against the US dollar, stronger by 10 basis points from Wednesday's close. The offshore yuan stands at 6.2175, weaker by 2 basis points from Wednesday finish.

11:17am: Share price of Reorient Group (yellow), majority owned by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, underperformed the benchmark Hang Seng Index (purple) over the past three months. Click to enlarge.

 

11:16am: Hong Kong dollar is trading Thursday at 7.7515 to the US dollar, near upper end of the currency peg. Euro/dlr stronger by 0.01 per cent at 1.0907. Dlr/yen at 124.73, weaker by 0.11 per cent. Pound/dlr stronger by 0.10 per cent to 1.5619. Australian dollar to US dollar weaker by 0.27 per cent to 0.7336. 

11:07am: The size of Chinese banks’ lending using pledged shares as collateral is about RMB720 billion, representing 0.81 per cent of the loan book of China’s banking sector, according to a note by ANZ Bank.

“While the stock market fallout will not result in a financial crisis in China according to our assessment, banks may reduce their lending to the real economy because they are asked to support the securities market,” it said. 

Click on chart to enlarge.

11:05am: Li Chao, the current second in command of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, is to be appointed vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Sohu Finance reports citing sources.

Li previously served as a PBoC spokesman and made his name in the field for controlling hot money inflows over 2011 with a raft of legal and financial measures. 

11:01am: ANTA Sports Products, owner of the Fila trade mark in greater China, lifts 5.5 per cent to HK$20.40 after releasing figures showing high single digit same-store sales growth and low double-digit 2016 trade fair growth. The stock is rated ‘buy’ by Goldman Sachs and BoA Merrill Lynch while JP Morgan holds it at neutral.

10:36am: The Shanghai Composite Index trades at 3,692.69, down 1.88 points or 0.05 per cent. The CSI300 improves to 3,870.29, up 3.39 points or 0.09 per cent. 

10:36am: The Shenzhen Composite Index trades at 2,131.82, up 3.4 points or 0.16 per cent. The ChiNext Price Index lifts to 2503.15, up 1.1 points or 0.04 per cent.

10:31am: The Hang Seng Index slips to 24,413.63, down 0.41 per cent or 100.53 points. The H-share index moves to 11,089.11, down 0.33 per cent or 36.73 points.

10:30am: People’s Bank of China injects an additional 35 billion yuan into the system via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements, Shanghai Securities News reports.   

10:30am: Investment holdings groups Heritage International has dropped 12 per cent to 78 HK cents on news it disposed of its interests in Gold Mountain Limited, a group with forestry assets in China’s Hebei province, to a Samoan purchaser for HK$720 million.

10:29am: Luxury car retailer China Yongda Automobiles jumped 16 per cent on its resumption of trading before trading 4.6 per cent up at HK$5.22, after it announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba’s automobile business unit. 

Initiatives under the agreement will include trade fairs, online sales of customized and used cars, online after-sales and repair services, building a national network of offline pick-up points and cooperation in internet financing.

10:19am: Shares of Harbin Electric, one of the mainland’s largest makers of power generation equipment, fell 1.9 per cent to HK$4.63, after it announced late on Wednesday that it expects to post a “significant decline” in pre-tax profit for the year’s first six months compared to the year-earlier period, citing lower product prices.

A Citi research note last week estimated its first-half net profit to have fallen 64 per cent year-on-year to 50 million yuan. 

10:18am: Shares of Jinchuan International, an overseas base-metals unit of Gansu government-owned Jinchuan Group, China’s largest platinum producer and third-largest copper producer, dropped 2.4 per cent to 40.5 HK cents, after it warned investors late on Wednesday that it expected to post a “material” net loss for the year’s first six months, compared to a profit of US$0.8 million in last year’s first-half.

It cited the loss to fallen copper price and production volume, higher unit operating costs due to frequent power outages and impairment on mineral rights and operating assets. Click chart to enlarge.

10:17am: Shares of mainland oil refinery and chemical plants construction contractor Wison Engineering Services rose 2.3 per cent to HK$1.77, after it said late on Wednesday it was found guilty by a mainland court on a bribery charge and was ordered to pay a fine of 30 million yuan, while former chairman Hua Bangsong was also found guilty on the same charge and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment.

Click on chart to enlarge.

9:55am: China’s securities regulator is said to resume corporate refinancing approval this Friday at the earliest, while initial public offerings will still be halted in the short term, 21st Century Business Herald reports citing sources.

9:40am: The Shanghai Composite Index opens at 3,625.50 points, down 69.07 points or 1.87 per cent on yesterday’s close. The CSI300 index of Shanghai-Shenzhen large cap stocks opens at 3,802.93, down 63.97 points or 1.65 per cent. 

9:40am: The Shenzhen Composite Index opens at 2,084.89, down 43.53 points or 2.04 per cent. The NASDAQ-style ChiNext Price Index drops 60.09 points or 2.4 per cent to open at 2441.96.

9:35am: The Hang Seng Index starts the day at 24,527.74, up 0.06 per cent or 13.58 points. The China Enterprises Index (H-share index) opens at 11,120.59, edging down 0.05 per cent or 5.25 points.

9:20am: The People’s Bank of China set the mid-price of onshore yuan trading at 6.1181, stronger by five basis points to the US dollar from the Wednesday mid-price fix. 

9:06am: Two Shanghai listed A-share companies applied to resume trading on Thursday while four companies will suspend trading in their stock. The number of suspended companies in Shanghai is 88, representing 8.22 per cent of the total.

In Shenzhen, a total of 12 listed companies say they will resume trading on Thursday, while eight firms will suspend trading in their shares. Some 311 firms in Shenzhen are still in voluntary suspension, accounting for about 18.37 per cent of total listed companies.

9:01am: Hang Seng August futures contracts are trading at 24,724, up 258 points or 1.05 per cent.

9:00am: Hong Kong listed companies announcing improved profits forecasts include China Renewable Energy Investment, China Aoyuan Property Group, Wanguo International Mining Group, A8 New Media Group and Win Hanversy Holdings. 

Jilin Qifeng Chemocal Fiber and AVIC International Holding (HK) expect to turn profits from losses in the corresponding period last year. 

Profit forecasts are down for Harbin Electric, International Elite and Rivera (Holdings). Losses are expected by Jinchuan Group International Resources, compared to its profit last year; Fortunet e-Commerce Group, which issued updated details of its decline; and HKC (Holdings), which expects its losses to increase year-on-year.

8:56am: Money had been flowing out of people’s brokerage account back to their bank deposits for two straight weeks, with the securities transaction settlement funds in China touching a seven-month low, data released by the state-backed China Securities Investor Protection Funds shows.  

8:48am: China Investment Fund Company has cancelled the placing of shares and convertible bonds which were slated to raise HK$992 million, citing recent market conditions. The stock last traded at 60 HK cents, down from a June 24 peak of HK$1.34.

8:46am: The number of new brokerage accounts opened in China last week hit the lowest on record at 340,500, down by 13 per cent from the week earlier, data from China Depository Clearing Corporation shows. 

8:45am: Beijing Media is being sued by Beijing Capital Airport Advertising for failure to render timely payment of advertising fees, the former has revealed in a Hong Kong stock exchange notice. BCAA seeks 50 million yuan in outstanding fees and liquidated damages. BM considers the claim to be without merit. The first hearing is set for September 18.

8:38am: San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong also released its interim results Wednesday evening, reporting a loss of HK$13.8 million as against profit of HK$23 million for the corresponding period last year. Turnover was down 23.5 per cent.

Its parent company is San Miguel Corp in the Philippines, one of the biggest conglomerates in the Southeast Asian country.

8:35am: HKT Trust, part of the PCCW telecommunications empire, announced first half revenue growth of 28 per cent and gross profit growth of 18 per cent year-on-year on Wednesday evening. PCCW’s interim results will be announced today at 5:30 pm.

7:58am: Kunlun Energy (orange), a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, will announce its interim result today. The company closed at HK$7.28 on Wednesday, up 0.275 per cent on the day. Its share price underperformed the Hang Seng Index (purple) over the past three months.

Insurance company Manulife Financial (orange) is going to announce its interim result today. The company’s share price outperformed the Hang Seng Index in the first half of 2015. It closed at HK$136.5 on Wednesday, up 0.294 per cent from Tuesday.