News Summary

• “These squeezing-the-toothpaste type of stimulus policies so far haven’t been able to turn around the underlying bottom-up fundamentals of areas like the property sector.”The HSCEI gauge plunged more than 6% this week and is on track to record its worst January performance in eight years..
• “The market might not even trust the 5% growth figure, it certainly has a much more negative view on the economy and definitely believes Beijing needs a big fiscal response.”— With assistance from Sangmi Cha, April Ma, Hideyuki Sano, Carmen Reinicke, and Cristin Flanagan.
• Still, bets on a short-term rebound have failed to materialize.“The government seems very sanguine about the economy,” said Xin-Yao Ng, an investment director for Asian equities at abrdn..
• Locally, a meltdown in Chinese shares is wreaking havoc on the nation’s asset management industry, pushing mutual fund closures to a five-year high.The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index has already lost 11% in 2024..
• On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index has dropped in nine of the last 10 weeks..