China stocks slip on trade concerns; Hong Kong rises on Nvidia
SHANGHAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Mainland China stocks slipped on Wednesday as concerns lingered over trade relations with the United States, while Nvidia's NVDA.O resumption of chip sale to China gave the Hong Kong market a boost.
At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index .SSEC was down 0.13% at 3,500.62 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 lost 0.27%.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the country would fight China "in a very friendly fashion".
"In our base case, we assume that the U.S. tariff rate on China would stay unchanged at 30% — but the recent escalation of U.S. tariffs on other economies is likely to further dampen global trade momentum," Morgan Stanley economists said in a note.
"In particular, the U.S. has started addressing transshipment concerns by introducing a two-tiered tariff structure on imports from Vietnam — 20% for direct imports and 40% for those deemed transshipments from China. If similar measures are extended to other countries, this could further pressure China's export performance."
Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI rose 0.28% to 24,658.55 points and looked set for the fifth straight winning session, the longest streak in two months. Tech giants listed in Hong Kong .HSTECH rose 0.61%.
Nvidia's NVDA.O planned resumption of sales of its H20 AI chips to China is part of U.S. negotiations on rare earths, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday, and comes days after its CEO met Trump.
Rival AI chipmaker AMD AMD.O also said the Department of Commerce would review its licence applications to export its MI308 chips to China.
Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described AI models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba 9988.HK and Tencent 0700.HK as "world class" and said AI was "revolutionising" supply chains, at an exhibition in Beijing on Wednesday.
The chip sale resumption lifted share prices of internet giants, with Alibaba 9988.HK and Tencent 0700.HK rising 1.67% and 0.29%, respectively, at the midday break.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index .MIAPJ0000PUS was weaker by 0.09% while Japan's Nikkei index .N225 was up 0.27%.
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