Mainland China stocks close lower ahead of long holiday, Hong Kong books best month since Jan 2023

** At the close of trade, China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.26% at 3,104.82 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.54%. ** The Hang Seng index was up 16.12 points or 0.09% at 17,763.03.

Mainland China stocks finished lower on Tuesday as investors were largely on the sidelines ahead of the long Labor Day holiday and the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week, while Hong Kong shares inched higher.

** The Hong Kong stock market will be closed on May 1 for Labor Day holiday, while mainland financial markets will be closed for extended holidays from Wednesday, with trading set to resume next Monday. ** Investors will quickly shift their attention to the upcoming Fed policy meeting and China's month-end Politburo meeting.

** Markets were unruffled by China's April official factory survey, which showed manufacturing activity expanded at a slower pace. ** Separately, China will step up its support for the economy, flexibly using policy tools, including banks' reserve requirement ratios (RRR) and interest rates, the Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, was quoted by state media as saying on Tuesday, after the mainland market close. ** At the close of trade, China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.26% at 3,104.82 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.54%.

** The Hang Seng index was up 16.12 points or 0.09% at 17,763.03. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.14% to 6,273.75. ** The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose more than 7% in April, booking the biggest monthly gain since January 2023, while both the Shanghai Composite Index and blue-chip CSI 300 index recorded their third monthly rises. ** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 1.9%, while the IT sector dipped 0.54%, the financial sector ended 0.36% higher and the property sector dipped 0.03%.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.05%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 1.24%. ** The yuan was quoted at 7.2391 per U.S. dollar at 0814 GMT, 0.2% weaker than the previous close of 7.225.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)