** China's blue-chip CSI 300 Index rose 1.34%, while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.18%.
** Hang Seng Index rose 1.6% and Hang Seng China Enterprises Index added 1.73%.
** Asian shares tracked Wall Street lower on Thursday, as a number of Federal Reserve speakers echoed Chair Jerome Powell in saying that interest rates are set to go higher.
** Yuan loans extended by Chinese banks are expected to have
surged to a record high in January as the central bank moved to
shore up growth in the world's second-biggest economy following
a lifting of pandemic controls, a Reuters poll showed.
** Loans, and money supply data are due from Feb 10 to 15.
** The CSI Liquor index gained 3.13% after
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese white liquor maker
Guizhou Guotai Liquor was seeking to raise $500 million in a
Hong Kong IPO.
** Liquor maker Wuliangyi Yibin jumped 3.93% in
Shenzhen, while Kweichow Maotai added 1.91% in
Shanghai.
** A recovery in consumption-led activity will take shape
from the first quarter onwards, according to a report from UBP,
which revised its GDP 2023 forecast to 6% from 5.2% previously.
** Meanwhile, net inflow into the A-share market via the
northbound stock connect returned on Thursday.
** Foreign investors bought a net 12.1 billion yuan ($1.79
billion) worth of China stocks after four days of net selling.
In January, northbound net inflow totalled 141.3 billion yuan,
the biggest monthly flow on record.
** "We expect to see some more net inflows of long-term
foreign capital into the A-share market as more evidence of
economic recovery surfaces," Lei Meng, UBS Securities' China
equities strategist, said in a note.
** Northbound net inflow could top 300 billion yuan this
year, Lei Meng added.
** Xiaomi's 8.51% jump led the gains in the Hang
Seng Index .
** But capping the upside was Baidu , whose Hong
Kong shares fell more than 3% for the second day in a row after
a 15% surge on Tuesday on news about the company's ChatGPT-like
AI chatbot called Ernie Bot.
** China's state media The Securities Times ran a front-page
editorial Tuesday warning of the risks in speculating on stocks
riding on the recent ChatGPT hype.
($1 = 6.7769 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Georgina Lee Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Savio D'Souza)
