Bank of England mortgage approvals for May due in 10 minutes.

Iraq government spokesman said targeted anti‑corruption measures are ongoing, describing them as a core pillar of national sovereignty; the campaign has been praised for its transparency and is aimed at protecting public funds.

By midday, Shanghai Composite was up 0.17%, Shenzhen Composite down 1.21% and ChiNext down 1.28% — ChiNext had earlier rallied more than 1.6% before reversing. Turnover across the two bourses exceeded 2.5 trillion yuan and over 3,200 stocks fell. Innovative-drug names led gains, with multiple stocks including Wanbang Medicine hitting daily limit-up. Pork and baijiu sectors outperformed. Compute-infrastructure names such as CPO-related stocks spiked early then eased; MicroLED and e-paper were among the biggest decliners.