** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.1% by lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2%.
** Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index was up 0.1%, while the China Enterprises Index dropped 0.2%.
** China's industrial firms' profits shrank at a slightly
slower pace in January-March but the decline remained in double
digits as the economy struggled to fully recover from the exit
to the zero-COVID policy.
** Citi analysts said industrial profits print showed that
despite a rebound in economic growth, demand for manufactured
goods remained poor.
** Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday for the first time
since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fulfilling a longstanding
goal of Kyiv which had publicly sought such talks for months.
** "Chinese local investors are positive on President Xi
Jinping's phone call with Ukraine leader and plans to send a
delegation to the war-torn country," UBS wrote in a note.
** However, tensions with the United States continued as
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that Chinese cloud
computing companies like Huawei Cloud and Alibaba Cloud could
pose a threat to U.S. security and vowed to review a request to
add them to an export control list.
** Tech stocks traded in Hong Kong dropped 0.8%,
with Alibaba and Tencent down 2.4% and 1.6%,
respectively.
** Meanwhile, financials and property stocks outperformed, up 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively.
** In China, sector performances were mixed, with healthcare themes up 1.7%, and the media shares down 3.8%. (Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
