Hong Kong stocks shrug off Fed hike, Chinese data

Hong Kong: Stocks in Hong Kong were little changed on Thursday, as investors gave muted reaction to the Federal Reserve's widely expected U.S. rate hike as well as China's tepid November economic data.
At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 55.72 points or 0.19 per cent at 29,166.38. The China Enterprises index rose 0.1 per cent to 11,531.73.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.2 per cent while the IT sector rose 0.12 per cent, the financial sector was 0.5 per cent lower and property sector rose 1.14 per cent.
The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd up 4.23 per cent, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, down 4.10 per cent.
China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.29 per cent at 3,293.5797 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended 0.57 per cent lower.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.20 per cent while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.28 per cent .
The yuan was quoted at 6.6087 per U.S. dollar at 08:31 GMT, 0.16 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.6195.
So far this year, the Hang Seng index is up 32.82 per cent, while China's H-share index is up 22.6 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 0.15 per cent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were Air China Ltd up 3.56 per cent, followed by China Vanke Co Ltd gaining 3.18 per cent and Great Wall Motor Co Ltd up by 2.73 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd which was down 2.52 per cent, PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd which fell 1.8 per cent and China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd down by 1.4 per cent.
About 2.02 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 101.2 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.00 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.65 billion.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 28.66 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.33 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 3 per cent.
So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has risen by 1.84 per cent to HK$19.13 trillion.
The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was higher by 0.19 per cent on the day at 5,062.46 points.