Hong Kong Stocks End Flat, Shanghai Jumps

Hong Kong shares ended slightly lower on Friday after a broadly positive week, despite positive comments from Beijing and Washington about talks aimed at ending their tariff war and as investors began to wind down ahead of the long Lunar New Year break.

The Hang Seng Index inched down just over 11 points, to 27,930.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.3 percent, to 2,618, while the Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 2.8 percent, to 1,309.

An early surge across the region petered out to leave markets mixed.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index ended flat as investors sought fresh trading clues and watched individual corporate earnings reports.

The Nikkei 225 index closed up just 0.1 percent, at 20,788.

Sydney and Singapore were both flat and Seoul dipped 0.1 percent, though Manila, Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta were all up.

After some positive comments from Washington overnight, Beijing said they had agreed to increase cooperation on intellectual property and boost imports of US goods. But some analysts were cautious.

"The statement certainly signals progress, but at best limited progress on the core long-term structural issues that separate the two sides," Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg News. (AFP)