SHANGHAI: Chinese equities declined as President Xi Jinping’s speech on the country’s four decades of reforms did little to lift sentiment.The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.8 percent, at its lowest since Nov. 29. It remains to be seen how much the government will cut taxes. Also the slump in U.S. stocks overnight has affected sentiment,” he said.Equity markets were lower across Asia in the wake of a sell-off in the U.S., where the S&P 500 Index closed at its lowest in 14 months. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 1 percent.“Hong Kong and China stocks should have slumped to follow the U.S. at open, but they didn’t, which was unusual,” said Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi International HK, adding that investors eventually took their cues from the U.S. to send stocks lower. - Bloomberg

Source: The Star December 18, 2018 09:11 UTC