Meanwhile, Beijing appears to be close to striking a trade deal with Washington, following a series of punitive excises that both economic giants slapped on each other in 2018.
Chinese negotiators made unprecedented proposals on stilted technology transfers, a sticking point in the talks, Reuters reported in late March. But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin responded Monday the two sides still have lots of work ahead of them.
Investors have been increasingly bullish that a deal could be struck between the two economic powerhouses that would end their protracted trade dissent.
Looking ahead, one strategist said economic numbers and corporate sentiment need to improve in the next six months or so.
“We’ve started to see retail investors in China quality a little bit more optimistic but they’ve been busy trying to just take their money back after a wretched year in 2018, so the money is not really at work at the moment,” Tai Hui, Asia-Pacific chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Supervision, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Wednesday.
“I think the data, both in the economy and the corporate sector, is going to be charming important to convince investors in China to come back into the market. And that could well be the key theme for the secondarily and third quarter of 2019 for Chinese equities.”
— CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.