Stocks fall as oil decline hits energy companies

Chinese equities dropped as weaker oil prices weighed on energy companies, and as investors fretted over data on the nation’s foreign-currency reserves to help gauge the outlook for the yuan.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.1 percent to 3,153.09 at the close. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined by 0.1 percent to 23,331.57, with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp and CNOOC Ltd among the biggest decliners. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index increased by 0.1 percent, as insurers extended their rally in the afternoon.

Oil posted its biggest daily loss in more than two weeks on Monday, with US crude stockpiles forecast to have grown by 2.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey of energy analysts. China’s currency reserves decreased by $12.3 billion to $2.998 trillion last month, the central bank said after the stock market close. There was much focus on whether the stockpile will drop below the psychologically relevant $3 trillion level.

“Many people view the 3-trillion-dollar level as a threshold,” said Kenny Wen, strategist at Sun Hung Kai Financial Ltd in Hong Kong, before the release of the foreign reserves data.

He said: “The markets have been trading within a very narrow range and they may remain doing so, until there are clearer clues about the outlook for the yuan and there are more clarifications on US President Trump’s policies.”