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China stock market
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Hong Kong stocks cap best week in July as China pledges to stem housing rot, Alibaba and Meituan lead tech winners

  • China’s banking regulator will work with the central bank to stem a property crisis and mortgage boycott, an official says
  • Alibaba and Meituan lead tech winners as the closure of Didi Global probe fuels speculation on end of crackdown

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People walk past an electronic board showing the closing Hang Seng Index number in Mong Kok on June 1, 2020. Photo: SCMP / Edmond So
Zhang Shidong
Hong Kong stocks advanced, taking the benchmark index to its best weekly gain this month after China’s banking regulator pledged to take measures to defuse a property and banking crisis caused by a credit squeeze.
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The Hang Seng Index gained 0.2 per cent to 20,609.14 at the close, bringing the gain to 1.5 per cent for the week. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.3 per cent on hopes for an end to a sector crackdown, while the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent.

China Merchants Bank advanced 1.5 per cent to HK$42.85 and Industrial and China Construction Bank climbed 0.6 per cent to HK$4.97. Agile Group led gains among mainland developers, adding 0.8 per cent to HK$2.59.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will work with the central bank, the housing ministry and local governments to ensure the delivery of uncompleted houses to fend off social instability, Liu Zhongrui, an official with the regulator’s statistics department, said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

The authorities will also support the property industry and funding access, he added, in a week where homebuyers have threatened to stop servicing their mortgage loans because of stalled projects and delayed deliveries by cash-strapped home builders in central Henan province and elsewhere.

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