China blue-chips have best month since November after MSCI inclusion

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China stocks gained for a second straight week, as MSCI's decision to include mainland A-shares in a key index fueled a buying spree for blue-chips, even as concerns lingered over a slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

The blue-chip CSI300 index on Friday fell 0.1 percent, to 3,666.80 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 percent to 3,192.43 points.

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For the week, CSI300 gained 1.2 percent and SSEC rose 1.1 percent. For the month, CSI300 gained 4.9 percent, its best month since November, while SSEC was up 2.4 percent. For the quarter, CSI300 advanced 6.1 percent and SSEC lost 0.9 percent.

Chinese fund managers have turned more upbeat as headwinds that had pressured domestic markets eased, according to a monthly Reuters poll.

US index provider MSCI has agreed to add 222 China-listed large-cap stocks to its Emerging Markets Index (EMI), tracked by around $1.6 trillion.

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And the index could raise its weighting of China A-shares, potentially adding 195 mid-sized stocks.

China's factories grew at the quickest pace in three months in June, buoyed by strong new orders in a sign of stabilising growth, though analysts expect a further slowdown is inevitable as Beijing cracks down on debt risks.

Over the past two weeks after MSCI's inclusion, banking and consumer stocks, which would represent the biggest weightings of China stocks in the MSCI EMI, have become the top performing sectors, advancing 4.7 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.

(Source: Reuters)

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