Hong Kong share market finished session higher on Monday, 16 May 2022, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index adding 0.26%, or 51.44 points, to 19,950.21, on the top of nearly 3% gain in the previous session.
Investor sentiment improved on tracking positive lead from Wall Street last Friday as well as China's move to cut mortgage rates and the phased lifting of Shanghai's lockdown. Shanghai set out plans for a return of more normal life from June 1 and for the end of a painful COVID-19 lockdown that has lasted more than six weeks. To prop up the property sector, the central bank cut the lower limit of interest rates on home loans for first-time purchasers by 20 basis points, based on Loan Prime Rates.
However, market gains were capped as shockingly weak China's economic data underlined the deep damage lockdowns are doing to the world's second-largest economy. China's April retail sales plunged 11.1% versus a year earlier, while industrial output fell 2.9%. Data on Friday showed new bank lending in China hit its lowest level in nearly four-and-a-half years in April, as the pandemic jolted the economy and weakened credit demand.
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