HK shares end month slightly down

HONG KONG, Nov 29 (Reuters): Hong Kong shares ended November slightly down, despite an ongoing rally in mainland indexes and in Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies.
China stock indexes rose for the seventh straight session on Friday and posted their biggest monthly gains in nearly two years, led by banking shares on speculation that a deposit insurance scheme would be unveiled soon.
The A-H share premium index, measuring the difference in price between dual-listed firms in Hong Kong and Shanghai stood at 106.68 at the close, its highest level since August 2013. A level over 100 implies that Hong Kong shares are trading at a premium versus shares in the same company listed in Shanghai.
The launch of the Hong Kong-Shanghai mutual market access programme was supposed to eliminate this premium by allowing investors in both markets to buy shares in the other, theoretically allowing arbitrage to erase the price difference between markets.
Instead, unbalanced flows between the two markets may be contributing to further distortions, given that Shanghai bound flows have far exceeded southbound flows every trading day since the programme launched on November 18.