Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday and posted their biggest weekly drop in two-and-a-half months as Washington unveiled a tariff list targeting US$50 billion worth of Chinese goods and Beijing vowed to retaliate, putting investors on edge.
MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index fell 0.44 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 percent to 172.69, down 1.2 percent for the week.
The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange gained 73.49 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at the day’s high of 11,087.47, down 0.6 percent from last week’s 11,156.42.
The Hang Seng index on Friday fell 0.4 percent to 30,309.49, while the China Enterprises Index (HSCE) lost 0.7 percent to 11,870.18 points.
For the week, Hang Seng fell 2.1 percent, the biggest drop since the week that ended on March 23, while the HSCE dropped 2.4 percent.
Beijing yesterday said it was responding in “equal scale” to US President Donald Trump’s tariff hike on Chinese goods in a conflict over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology policy that companies worry could quickly escalate and chill global economic growth.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.9 percent, while the IT sector dipped 0.5 percent, the financial sector was 0.47 percent lower and property sector rose 0.2 percent.
The top gainers among H-shares were ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance Co (眾安保險), up 2.84 percent, followed by Shenzhou International Group Holdings Ltd (申洲國際集團控股有限公司).
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were CITIC Securities Co (中信證券), which was down 5.19 percent, Huaneng Power International Inc (華能國際電力), which fell 3.8 percent and Great Wall Motor Co (長城汽車), down 3.3 percent.
About 2.41 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, about 133.8 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 1.8 billion shares a day.
Japan’s TOPIX on Friday rose 0.3 percent, the South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.7 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX200 Index gained 1.3 percent.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and CNA
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