Hong Kong stocks fell, following a two-week advance, amid concerns about the strength of China’s economic recovery as corporate earnings reports from some of the nation’s biggest companies trailed estimates.
The Hang Seng Index dropped 1.8 per cent to 19,567.69 at the close of Monday trading. The Tech Index slipped 2.8 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.4 per cent.
Xiaomi sank 4 per cent to HK$11.94 and Meituan tumbled 6.3 per cent to HK$131.40 while NetEase retreated 2.4 per cent to HK$137.60. Li Ning dropped 2.8 per cent to HK$58.50 and HSBC declined 0.8 per cent to HK$51.75.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
Alibaba Group jumped as much as 3.4 per cent after the Post reported founder Jack Ma has returned to mainland China, before losing all the rally. Alibaba, the owner of this newspaper, ended 0.1 per cent lower at HK$85.25.
Data later this week may show official manufacturing cooled in March, according to consensus estimates from economists tracked by Bloomberg. Investors putting their money on the mainland’s recovery theme may find their stock bets premature, as empty shipping containers piled up at major ports while exports struggled.
“With investor views still split regarding how strong and how sustainable China’s post-reopening economic recovery will be, this [PMI manufacturing] is an important data point to watch,” Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.
The city’s stock market mounted an advance as the Hang Seng Index climbed 3.1 per cent over the past two weeks, helping the broader market regain US$164 billion of capitalisation. Still, confidence remains fragile amid worries about a global financial crisis after bank failures in the US and the state-led rescue of Credit Suisse.
Meanwhile, Baidu slumped 3.2 per cent to HK$149.50. The company turned an event to unveil a new cloud service, along with its newly launched ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot, into a closed-door session. The launch of Ernie Bot earlier this month drew mixed reactions from users despite the hype.
Elsewhere, corporate earnings failed to lift market sentiment as fourth-quarter report cards from China Hongqiao, ENN Energy, Sinopec and Zijin Mining missed estimates tracked by Bloomberg.
US policymakers said last Friday that while some [midsize] lenders are coming under stress, the overall financial system is still sound. This followed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and amid brewing troubles at the First Republic Bank, unnerving global markets.
Jiangsu United Water Technology debuted in Shanghai, surging 44 per cent to 8.44 yuan.
Key Asian markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 in Japan added 0.3 per cent and the S&P ASX 200 Index in Australia rose 0.1 per cent, while the Kospi in South Korea slipped 0.2 per cent.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-xiaomi-lead-hong-kong-093000233.html