Hang Seng up despite China data fears

Agencies and staff reporter

China took another step to obscure information about overseas funds going in and out of its sagging stock market, saying it will stop publishing daily flow data mid next month.

However, the news did not stop the stock market from putting on gains yesterday.

The decision, which was hinted at in April and made explicit by the country's stock exchanges on Friday, follows a move in May to end data on intraday flows through trading links with Hong Kong.

Investors will lose the ability to calculate net flows at the end of each trading day from August 18.

The only daily data published by the exchanges from then on will be the total turnover and number of trades made in stocks and exchange-traded funds via Hong Kong links, as well as the turnover of the 10 most active securities.

Combined data on so-called northbound flows into individual stocks will only be made available quarterly, the exchanges also said. Data on the holdings of global investors in individual stocks will be released on the fifth trading day of each quarter, for the close of the previous period.

This came as the Hang Seng Index rose 217 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 17,238 yesterday although turnover only came in at HK$84.7 billion, the lowest in over three months. The Shanghai Composite Index inched up 0.03 percent.

Alibaba's (9988) shares rose up to 5.8 percent as investors cheered the e-commerce company's plan to earn more service fees from merchants. Alibaba closed 4.7 percent higher to HK$76.55.

In other news, Nongfu Spring's (9633) controlling shareholder, Zhong Shanshan, increased his stake in the bottled water giant by a total of over HK$100 million last week through a company he owns called Yangshengtang.

Separately, Apple Co's upcoming artificial intelligence features are expected to arrive later than anticipated in October, which dragged down shares of Apple suppliers yesterday, with Sunny Optical Technology (2382) losing 3.5 percent.

In money markets, the yen held steady yesterday, with sentiment still fragile following the Japanese currency's best weekly rally since late April on the back of shifting interest rate expectations and a stock market sell-off. It was last trading at 153.60 per US dollar.