Hong Kong: Shares ignore N.Korea missile

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong stocks barely moved on Friday, as investors shrugged off another missile firing by North Korea, though China's weak August investment data pulled down raw material shares.

The Hang Seng index rose 0.1 per cent, to 27,807.59 points, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.3 per cent, to 11,067.55 points.

For the week, the HSI rose 0.5 per cent while the HSCE fell 0.7 per cent.

After brief jitters in morning trading on news of the North Korean missile that passed over Japan, investors chose to shrug off geopolitical tensions.

But there was renewed fear of a slowdown in China, after data published on Thursday showed the country's fixed-asset investment grew at the slowest pace in nearly 18 years in August, while factory output and retail sales also expanded less than anticipated.

An index tracking raw material producers slumped over 2 per cent.

But a gauge tracking Chinese property developers surged over 4 per cent, bolstered by data showing growth in property investment accelerated to 7.8 per cent in August from 4.8 per cent in July.

REUTERS