Mainland China Bourses Close For National Day Holidays Until Oct. 9 Amid Tough Year

Stock exchanges in mainland China will be closed until Monday, Oct. 9, for National Day holidays. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will also be shut on Monday for National Day.

Traders will get a breather from a year that’s been disappointing for many. The end of China’s Covid restrictions last year was expected to give a big bump to economic growth this year. China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index both reached 2023 closing highs in January.

However, the CSI 300 on Thursday ended off more than 12% from that peak, and the Hang Seng Index on Friday was down by more than a fifth from its 2023 high. Since Dec. 31, the CSI 300 has fallen by 5.1%, and the Hang Seng Index has lost 11.6%.

Geopolitical tension, particularly with the U.S., has triggered outflows of international capital from Chinese stocks and also hurt confidence among local investors. The U.S. and China traded criticism this week: the U.S. State Department issued a report saying that “Beijing has invested billions of dollars to construct a global information ecosystem that promotes its propaganda and facilitates censorship and the spread of disinformation.” China reportedly responded by calling the U.S. an “empire of lies.”

Shares in Chinese real estate developers have been particularly hard hit by a building glut and debt crisis. Decliners include Hong Kong-listed Country Garden, led by billionaire Yang Huiyan, which has lost 66% of its value so far this year.

It will be business as usual this week at exchanges in the U.S., where mainland Chinese Internet companies such as Alibaba and JD.com are listed. Yet it also has been a tough stretch for investors in those two leaders. JD has lost about half of its value, and Alibaba is down 5.7% so far this year. PDD, owner of the popular Temu e-commerce app, has outperformed those two, rising 16% year-to-date.

China’s exchanges were closed on Friday for the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday.

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@rflannerychina