The Mainland China equity market closed session higher on Tuesday, 23 July 2019, as investors shifted their focus back to the main boards and away from Shanghai's new STAR technology board. Most of sectors inclined, with shares in infrastructure and IT firms being notable gainers. At closing bell, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.45%, or 12.97 points, to 2,899.95. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, added 0.88%, or 13.45 points, to 1,545.88. The blue-chip CSI300 index jumped 0.22%, or 8.23 points, to 3,789.91.

Monday's high-fliers on the new STAR board saw gains as high as 521% at one point. But Tuesday was a different story, with all but four suffering big drops. China Railway Signal & Communication, which specialises in train control systems, led the declines, with a 18% loss to 10.1 yuan. Transaction volume in the 25 stocks listed on STAR stood at 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), a decided drop from the 49 billion yuan achieved on Monday. Turnover in Shanghai and Shenzhen reached 323 billion yuan in total.

Unlike China's regular boards, where IPOs are limited to a gain of 44% on opening day and then are controlled by the up or down 10% limit for all stocks, the STAR stocks can essentially go up as high as investors are willing to send them for five days.

On the trade front, U.S.-China trade negotiations were in focus, after reports that the two sides would soon meet face-to-face, with reports that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would travel to Beijing next week. U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to requests for “timely licensing decisions” from the Department of Commerce regarding Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, following a meeting with tech and telecommunications executives on Monday. That comes as Huawei, which relies on American suppliers for components and software in some of its products, remains on a Washington trade blacklist.

CURRENCY NEWS: China yuan depreciated against greenback on Tuesday, as weaker midpoint fixing by central bank. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China set the yuan's midpoint rate at 6.8818 per dollar, 0.09% weaker than the previous fix of 6.8759. In the spot market, onshore yuan opened at 6.8819 per dollar and eased to a low of 6.8848 at one point, the weakest level since July 10, before closing at 6.8822, weaker by 5 bps than the previous session close at 6.8817.

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