Hong Kong continued selling off on Tuesday, extending losses from Monday. The broader Asia-Pacific markets, meanwhile, were mixed.
The broader Hang Seng index in Hong Kong briefly fell more than 5% in Tuesday afternoon trade before paring some of those gains, eventually closing 4.22% lower at 25,086.43.
The index has fallen more than 8% in just two days as regulatory fears surrounding China’s technology and private education sector weighed on investor sentiment. On Monday, it fell more than 4%.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent fell 8.98% while Alibaba dropped 6.35% and Meituan declined 17.66%. The Hang Seng Tech index slipped 7.97% on the day to 6,249.65.
China’s antitrust regulator announced Monday a set of guidelines for food delivery platforms that included paying delivery personnel at least the local minimum wage — a move that could hurt the profits of firms such as Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele. me.
Mainland Chinese stocks also saw sizable losses on the day, with the Shanghai Composite down 2.49% to 3,381.18 while the Shenzhen component dropped 3.672% to about 14,093.64. Industrial firms’ profits in China jumped 20% year-on-year in June, official data showed Tuesday. Still, that was a decline from the 36.4% year-on-year increase seen in May.
Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.49% to close at 27,970.22 while the Topix index advanced 0.64% on the day to 1,938.04. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.24% on the day to 3,232.53.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to close at 7,431.40. while the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.98%.
Asian Markets Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.759 after a recent fall from above 92.8.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.12 per dollar, stronger than levels around 110.5 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.734 following an earlier high of $0.7388.
Oil prices were mixed in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up slightly to $74.53 per barrel. U.S. crude futures dipped fractionally to $71.85 per barrel.
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