China and Hong Kong stocks slip as gold shares drag, lingering trade tensions in focus

Oct 22, 2025, 11:19 GMT+7
Reuters - Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong slipped on Wednesday, dragged by gold shares, while sentiment was dampened by lingering trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.
** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite indexwas down 0.44% at 3,899.05 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 indexlost 0.7%.
** Gold stocks were among the biggest losers in morning deals, following plunging gold pricesin global markets, with the CSI non-ferrous metal industry sub-index (.CSI00081) falling 2.1%. Western Region Gold (601039.SS) slumped 6.03% by midday break.
** The precious metal has had a blockbuster run this year, climbing more than 50% as broader geopolitical and economic uncertainty, as well as expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts, spurred demand for the safe-haven asset.
** U.S. President Donald Trump said he will discuss a lot of things with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in two weeks, but also conceded that the potential meeting may not happen.
** In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Indexdropped 1.27% at 25,697.57 points, while the city's tech indexfell 2.12%.
** Meanwhile, some global investment banks said they no longer expect major monetary stimulus measures in the remainder of this year.
** "China could still be on track to hit its 'around 5%' growth target with the growth achieved in the first three quarters of this year," Citi analysts said in a note.
"With smaller room to cut for the People's Bank of China, we no longer expect a policy rate cut or reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the focus could be on deployment of fiscal and quasi-fiscal policies."
** Analysts at Standard Chartered said they expect another 10-basis-point rate cut in the fourth quarter, with "risk that the rate cut may not happen this year."

Sumber : Reuters