China stocks closed higher on Tuesday, but lost 2% for the month.
** China's blue-chip CSI 300 Index rose 0.63%, while the Shanghai
Composite Index climbed 0.66%.
** The Hang Seng Index slid 0.79%, while Hang Seng China Enterprises
Index dropped 1.33%.
** Both the Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite posted their first
monthly decline in February since November, snapping a three-month rally that
began when China started to ease COVID restrictions.
** Hang Seng's weakness in February erased almost all the gains made in January. The benchmark outperformed the rest of the world with a 10.4% jump last month.
** Asia and emerging market funds have significantly increased their exposure to mainland China over the past month as it was one of the biggest underweights for the funds, HSBC analysts said in a note.
** China's urban employment fell for the first time in six decades last year. Its per capita spending also marked a rare decline, as harsh COVID curbs ravaged the world's second-biggest economy, official data shows.
** Redmond Wong, Greater China market strategist at Saxo Markets, said
investors are waiting for more economic data to assess the strength of the
recovery.
** "The rise in tension between the U.S. and China over Russia also weighed
on sentiment," Wong said, but stressed they don't think the bull market in China
and Hong Kong stock markets are over.
** Among sectors, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) companies jumped 2.5% after Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called for promoting the
innovation and development of TCM. AI-related stocks also rose
1.9%.
** In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.6%, while Hong
Kong-listed telecom stocks gained 2.3%.
(Reporting by Summer Zhen; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Janane Venkatraman and
Shailesh Kuber)
