HONG KONG: The Chinese market climbed marginally on the last trading day of an otherwise bearish year, with investors expecting more government support in 2019. It is down 0.6 percent for the week, down 5.1 percent in December, and lower by 12.5 percent this quarter. The Shanghai index has lost 24.6 percent since the start of the year, while the CSI 300 index has weakened by 25.3 percent in the same period. The People’s Bank of China abandoned the reference to deleveraging in a Thursday statement following the quarterly meeting of its monetary policy committee. It also dropped the word ‘neutral’ when describing monetary policy.

Source: The Star December 28, 2018 07:30 UTC