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China and Hong Kong stocks slipped on Wednesday and the markets looked set to post their third straight session of decline, amid lingering trade war fears and a depreciating yuan.
The CSI300 index fell 1.2 per cent, to 3,490.35 points, at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 per cent, to 2,831.58 points.
The Hang Seng index dropped 0.6 per cent, to 28,713.80 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 1.0 per cent, to 11,007.42.
The ZTE shares were down 3.2 per cent in Shenzhen and 2.3 per cent in Hong Kong by the lunch break, reports Reuters.
China’s central bank lowered its yuan midpoint for the sixth straight trading day on Wednesday, to the weakest in six months.
Investors worried a depreciating yuan could trigger capital outflows that would in turn weigh on assets prices, and could push up costs for domestic airlines with dollar-denominated debts.
The yuan was quoted at 6.5943 per US dollar, 0.22 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.5797.
Jiangsu Hongdou Industrial Co Ltd was the top gainer on the main Shanghai Composite index which rose 10.15 per cent.
China United Travel Co Ltd was the top loser on the Shanghai index with losing 10.04 per cent.
The top gainers among H-shares were CNOOC Ltd, up 4.93 per cent, followed by PetroChina Co Ltd gaining 1.75 per cent and Shenzhou International Group Holdings Ltd, up by 1.72 per cent.
About 6.98 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 51.9 per cent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 13.45 billion shares a day.
The volume traded was 12.59 billion as of the last full trading day. ** As of 04:04 GMT, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 18.82 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.