The trade war's impact on China's economy is limited, said Kim Eng, S&P's primary sovereign analyst for China. "I would not expect US tariffs by themselves to cause the Chinese economy to weaken so much that we have to lower the rating," Eng said. There's also expectation that Beijing would be ready to intervene to prevent sharp market selloffs ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1. Sector performance was mixed for the day. Healthcare firms lagged as Beijing expanded a drug bulk-buy programme.
Leading the gains, the IT and telecommunications sectors closed up 2.6% and 2.9% respectively, as investors cheered Beijing's continued push for tech independence amid the bruising trade war with the United States. On the newly launched STAR Market, all of the 28 listed firms posted gains of more than 4%, with Espressif Systems surging the maximum allowed 20%. For the first half of the year, profitability improved for most emerging industries in the A-share market, with cloud computing, 5G, high-end manufacturing and Internet of Things recording far higher profit growth rates, analyst at China Merchants Securities said in a report.
The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Saurer Intelligent Technology Co Ltd, up 10.08%, followed by Tianjin Quanyechang Group Co Ltd, gaining 10.04%, and Wuhan DDMC Culture Co Ltd, up by 10.04%.
The largest percentage losers in the Shanghai index were Well Lead Medical Co Ltd, down 9.48%, followed by TVZone Media Co Ltd, losing 9.07%, and Ecovacs Robotics Co Ltd, down by 5.05%. About 18.90 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 116.1% of the market's 30-day moving average of 16.28 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 20.28 billion.