China's equities end higher as GDP slowdown adds to recovery hopes

* Shanghai shares + 0.56%, CSI300 + 0.55%

* GDP growth in 2018 at 6.6%, the lowest since 1990

* Chinese shares at 17.87% of H share premium

SHANGHAI, Jan. 21 (Reuters) – Chinese equities ended higher on Monday, as investors ignored the country's slowest annual economic growth rate in 28 years, as authorities hoped the authorities would continue to boost consumer sentiment. growth.

** At closing, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.56% to 2,610.51. ** The CSI300 first-order index rose 0.55%, its financial sector sub-index rose 0.23% and its health care sub-index 0.38%. ** The Shenzhen index, smaller, finished up 0.61% and the ChiNext Composite index of startup board rose 0.416%. ** China's economic growth edged down to 6.4% in the fourth quarter from the previous year, due to weak investment, loss of consumer confidence and the trade war with the United States, leaving growth for 2018 at 6.6%, the lowest since 1990. * * The slowdown was in line with expectations and "we can expect more favorable policies", said Larry Hu, an economist at Macquarie Capital in Hong Kong. ** The Chinese Ministry of Finance on Friday announced new tax cuts for small businesses as part of an effort to create jobs and promote economic stability. ** In the region as a whole, the MSCI Asia-Japan ex-Japan stock index strengthened by 0.11%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.26% . ** At 07:15 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.7885 for one US dollar, 0.13% lower than the previous close of 6.7795. ** The largest percentage of winners on the main Shanghai Composite Index was Citic Guoan Wine Co Ltd (10.17%), followed by Shanghai Hongda Mining Co Ltd (10.07%) and GigaDevice Semiconductor Beijing Inc (10%). ). ** The biggest losers of the Shanghai index were Changshu Fengfan Power Equipment Co., Ltd., down 10.05%, followed by Fujian Anjoy Foods Co., with a loss of 7.13%, and Pengqi Technology Development Co, down 6.23%. ** So far this year, the Shanghai equity index rose 4.7% and the CSI300 by 5.8%, while the Chinese H share index listed in Hong Kong was up 5.6%. Shanghai shares rose 4.68% this month. ** About 16.34 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, about 119.8% of the 30-day moving average market, which stands at 13.64 billion shares a day. The volume of the previous trading session was $ 19.08 billion. (Report by Andrew Galbraith to SHANGHAI and Noah Sin in HONG KONG, edited by Subhranshu Sahu)