Listen, if you were worried about the recent slide in Hong Kong and mainland shares you can rest easy headed into the weekend, because thanks in part to some pretty damn robust November trade data, shares rallied hard on Friday.
China November exports and imports blew away estimates rising 12.3% and 17.7% respectively, in dollar terms. “Investors were waiting for a catalyst to bottom fish some stocks that have suffered in the past few days,” First Shanghai Securities’ Linus Yip, said, adding that “the stronger-than-expected Chinese trade data just gave them the reason to buy and lifted sentiment.”
The SHCOMP closed up 0.6%, the ChiNext gained 0.9%, the Shenzhen was higher by 1.2%, and the CSI 300 tacked on 0.8%. Still, if you look at a YTD chart for these you can see the recent drift (the SHCOMP is down more than 4% in four weeks):
Hong Kong was the story though and we wanted to document this for you because in light of recent events, it’s important to monitor what’s going on there. As you know, the tech rout that hit Wall Street on November 29 quickly went global and Tencent has suffered mightily.
Tencent was up nearly 5% on Friday, bringing the two-day rebound to 8%. Again, this is important considering how far the shares have fallen since the company pole vaulted into the half-trillion club last month:
Chinese shares traded in Hong Kong jumped the most in two weeks:
The Hang Seng itself rose the most since November 21, a welcome sign in light of the fact that it too is down over 4% from local highs.
Whether or not this bounce is sustainable and more broadly, whether Friday marks a turning point for sentiment which was rapidly deteriorating, will help determine whether global risk assets are able to rally into year-end.
