Traders have concerns about their capacity to place orders at Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks fell to a six-month low on Monday, dragged by tech shares as the United States plans limits on Chinese investment in U.S. technology firms.
The Hang Seng index fell 1.3 percent, to 28,961.39, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.2 percent, to 11,208.90.
The U.S. Treasury Department is drafting curbs that would block firms with at least 25 percent Chinese ownership from buying U.S. companies with ”industrially significant technology,” a government official briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
The technology sector fell 2 percent, led by index heavyweight Tencent.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.4 percent, while the IT sector dipped 2.02 percent, the financial sector was 1.17 percent lower and the property sector dipped 2.09 percent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was CNOOC Ltd, up 2.43 percent, while the biggest loser was Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd which was down 5.75 percent.
Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.92 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed down 0.79 percent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.5233 per U.S. dollar at 08:25 GMT, 0.44 percent weaker than the previous close of 6.495.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was down 1.94 percent this year, while China’s H-share index was down 3.2 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has declined 3.71 percent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were CNOOC Ltd, up 2.43 percent, followed by China Telecom Corp Ltd gaining 1.14 percent and PetroChina Co Ltd up by 0.35 percent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Air China Ltd, which was down 6.81 percent, New China Life Insurance Co Ltd, which fell 4.5 percent, and China Gas Holdings Ltd, down by 4.4 percent.
About 2.37 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 124.7 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 1.90 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.22 billion.
At close, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 19.75 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. - Reuters
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