After the U.S. holiday break, Hong Kong’s stock market faced a downturn, with the Hang Seng Index experiencing a significant weekly loss. The index dropped by 1.5% to close at 17,634.92, paring the week’s gains to a modest 1.2%. This was led by a retreat in tech stocks, with the Tech Index itself falling by 1.6%. The Shanghai Composite Index saw a more modest decline of 0.4%.
Major financial and tech companies were among those impacted. HSBC (LON: HSBA) Holdings (NYSE: HSBC) shares fell by 1.5%, AIA Group (OTC: AAGIY) and Construction Bank of China both decreased by 1.1%, and China Merchants Bank was down by 0.8%. In the tech sector, Xiaomi (OTC: XIACF) retreated by 2%, and NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) was notably down by 3.4%. Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), JD (NASDAQ: JD).com each lost 1% of their value, and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Group dipped to HK$76.50, while Tencent (HK:0700) slid to HK$323.80 amid unmet corporate earnings expectations.
Despite the general downtrend, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s shares held steady, as did Trip.com’s. Investor concerns ahead of earnings reports next week were reflected in BYD (SZ: 002594)’s stock price dropping by 2.2% and Meituan decreasing by 2.3%. Chow Tai Fook plunged further by 9%, closing at HK$10.98 on rumors regarding family succession issues and revenue that did not meet market expectations.
New World Development also saw its share price reduced slightly to HK$13.24 following its trading without rights to a special dividend which had previously inflated its price.
Despite these losses, the Hang Seng Index managed to hold onto overall weekly gains thanks in part to early-week trading optimism spurred by easing geopolitical tensions between the US and China along with support measures for China’s housing sector from mainland authorities.
The market unease was further exacerbated by the less than expected quarterly results of key industries. A total of 31 out of 80 index constituents have published their September quarter results, revealing an average year-over-year growth of only 6.5%, with reported earnings falling short by an unexpected margin of -7.2%. Key industries such as material production, technology, and banking were among the most impacted sectors.
