How should investors make sense of China’s plenum, priorities and politics?

CHINA’S leaders had an unenviable job at their Third Plenum from Jul 15 to 18. The meeting – so called because of its order in a cycle of policy-setting summits held every five years to chart long-term economic reforms – was expected to produce a road map to dispel perceptions of China’s economic malaise.

Yet few concrete measures were announced. While there was support for the green technology and energy sectors, deemed crucial for national security and economic resilience, the results – summed up in three official documents worth 25,000 words in their English translations – fell short of markets’ expectations.

Ahead of the meeting, shares in the country’s bellwether property and tech sectors were up by 7 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. But local investors’ expectations of market-friendly measures were disappointed once again, and Chinese and Hong Kong equity markets posted losses after the plenum concluded.