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The equity markets across the Asia Pacific region were trading in the red on Friday, as shares of the Chinese technology companies in Hong Kong were battered yet again.
The Hang Seng Index of Hong Kong was down 1.96%. Most stocks that had rebounded yesterday were back in the red: Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd tanked 5.27%, Tencent Holdings Ltd was down 3.86%. On the other hand, Meituan, which has lost more than half of its market value since February, was yet again worst hit – losing 7.88%. The Hang Seng Tech Index, which is in the bear zone now, crashed 4.23%.
On the other hand, the Hang Sang China Enterprises Index, which houses all the Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), was down 2.91%.
The broader Hang Seng index has crashed more than 8% in the first two days of this week and bounced back 3% in Thursday’s session.
Shares in Mainland China weren’t doing any better either: the Shanghai Composite was down 0.53%; the Shenzhen Component down 0.48%; and the FTSE Chine A50 crashed 2.19%.
Meanwhile, Japanese markets were trading in the red for the first time in this week – probably because of less-than-expected retail sale numbers. The benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 1.65%, while the Topix lost 0.99%.
The far eastern country’s industrial output jumped 6.2% in June, sharply rising from a 6.5% drop in May. However, June retail sales rose 0.1% from a year earlier – less than 0.2% forecasted gain.
Elsewhere in South Korea, the KOSPI was down 1.07%.
Down Under in Australia, the benchmark ASX200 was volatile in its movement as investors were tracking the COVID-19 situation in Sydney, which reported a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases yesterday despite an extended lockdown. At the time of filing this copy, the benchmark was trading near the flatline – up 0.02%.
Overnight, the stocks rallied in Wall Street even though data showed the second-quarter US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 6.5% on an annualised basis, almost 2 percentage points lower than the market estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 150 points on Thursday after touching a new intraday high. The S&P 500, which also briefly touched an all-time high, finished the day up 0.4% at 4,419.15.
