Mainland stocks ended sharply down on Thursday while their Hong Kong counterparts were mixed as President Xi Jinping hosted his US counterpart Donald Trump for a key summit.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended flat with a meagre rise of less than a point to 26,389 on high turnover of HK$306.7 billion.

The China enterprises index was down 17 points, or 0.2 percent, at 8,858 while the tech index was down 17 points, or 0.35 percent, at 5,076.

On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 64 points, or 1.52 percent, at 4,177.

The Shenzhen Component Index was 344 points, or 2.14 percent, lower at 15,745 while the ChiNext Index lost 87 points, or 2.16 percent, to 3,951.

Investors had very low expectations from the summit, but hoped for at least reassurances about an extension of a Sino-US trade tariff truce and no surprise blowups.

"Beijing is adopting a wait-and-see mode, given the 'better than expected' first-quarter [economic] growth ... Beijing's focus for the summit is not on deliverables but on optics, aiming to project stability and predictability to both international and domestic audiences," said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei hit a record high of 63,799 before falling into negative territory and ending down 618 points, or 0.98 percent, at 62,654 as concerns about inflation and rising interest rates overwhelmed enthusiasm over technology stocks.

In Seoul, the Kospi posted a record close of 7,981 on gains of 137 points or 1.75 percent as chipmaker Samsung Electronics touched an all-time high after the country's finance minister vowed efforts to prevent a labour strike. (Reuters/Xinhua)


Edited by Tony Sabine