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Hong Kong stocks narrow losses as city will allow restaurants to serve in evenings, cinemas to reopen Friday

  • US, China officials spoke by phone Tuesday, reiterated commitment to trade deal
  • Alibaba advances, while Tencent slips

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Traders remain focused on the hunt for treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus. Here, a nurse shows a Covid-19 vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech at the Sao Lucas Hospital in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil on August 8, 2020. The vaccine trial is being carried out in Brazil in partnership with Brazilian Research Institute Butanta. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Hong Kong finished with a small loss Tuesday after earlier declines narrowed when the government relaxed social distancing restrictions, allowing restaurants to serve until 9pm beginning Friday.

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Stocks perked up on the announcement after falling as much as 0.8 per cent. The Hang Seng benchmark finished with a 0.3 per cent loss at 25,486.22. That left it below 25,500 after it closed Monday above that level – at 25,551.58 – for the first time in five weeks.
“25,000 is the peak since the middle of July,” said Alan Li, portfolio manager at Atta Capital. “The market will likely struggle at a certain level for a few days.”

Information technology stocks were the top losers.

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AAC Technologies tumbled 7.4 per cent on Monday’s disappointing second-quarter results and a downgrade by Citigroup to “sell”. It was the worst performer on the Hang Seng, followed by Sunny Optical, as Goldman Sachs cut the lens maker to “sell” from “buy”.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.4 per cent at 3,372.58, snapping a two-session winning streak.

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