Mar 4, 2026, 11:47 GMT+7
Reuters - China, Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday, led by oil and maritime shipping companies, as investors remained risk-off amid the escalating Middle East conflict and turned focus to the annual parliamentary meeting due this week for policy signals.
Worries that a wider conflict could trigger an energy shock, lift inflation and delay rate cuts weighed on sentiment in Asia.
By the lunch break, the blue-chip CSI300 Indexfell 1.6%, while the Shanghai Composite Indexlost 1.4%.
Hong Kong benchmark Hang Sengshed 2.8% to a six-month low.
Onshore selling was led by oil, maritime transport and port stocks.
The CSI Oil and Gas Industry Index (.CSI930653) dropped 3.3% after China Petroleum & Chemical, CNOOCand PetroChinaissued abnormal-trading notices following more than 20% gains over the past three sessions; the firms said operations are normal and cautioned on geopolitical uncertainty in crude prices.
Nanjing Portand Ningbo Marineeach fell nearly 10%.
"Geopolitical risks remain unclear and A-shares are in a catch-up decline. In a high-volume downswing, investors should avoid rushing to bottom-fish and watch developments in the conflicts and annual parliamentary meeting for possible policy signals," analysts at Huatai Futures said in a note.
The country's top leadership will publish its annual government work report and budget plans at the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's rubber-stamp parliament, on Thursday, as well as the outline of its 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026-2030, a sweeping blueprint that sets priorities for industrial policy.
"We expect Beijing to lower the 2026 GDP growth target slightly to 4.5%-5.0% from around 5.0% in 2025," said Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura.
He added that Beijing is likely to keep the official fiscal deficit at 4.0% of GDP and lift net financing of off-budget ultra-long central government special bonds to 1.6 trillion yuan ($231.29 billion) and local government special bonds to 4.8 trillion yuan, from 1.3 trillion and 4.4 trillion, respectively, announced in March 2025.
Gains elsewhere helped limit losses. The CSI Defense Indexrebounded about 1% after a sharp selloff in the previous session, and the CSI Rare Earth Indexclimbed nearly 1%.
In Hong Kong, financials led declines, falling 3.6%, while tech majorsslid 2%, extending losses for a third session.
An official survey showed China's manufacturing activity contracted for a second month in February, underscoring pressure on factory margins as weak domestic demand and investment offset resilient exports.
($1 = 6.9176 Chinese yuan)

Sumber : Reuters