SINGAPORE – Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falls 2% as technology stocks fall and Asian markets mixed, as China’s GDP lost expectations.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 2% and the Hong Kong Tech index fell 3%.
Shares of Alibaba listed in the United States fell more than 4% overnight after the Wall Street Journal reported that company executives were cited by authorities investigating police data theft. Shares of the tech giant in Hong Kong fell more than 5%.
The heavyweights of the Tencent and Meituan index fell 2.7% and 2.9%, respectively.
China’s GDP grew 0.4% in the second quarter, compared to 4.8% in the first quarter and 1% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Retail sales exceeded expectations, however, up 3.1% in June. A Reuters analyst survey did not expect any growth compared to a year ago.
The Shanghai Composite was down 0.24%, while the Shenzhen Composite was up 0.196%.
Inflation and rising interest rates, and fears of a recession, continued to dominate investment markets over the past week.
Shane Oliver
Chief Economist, AMP Capital
The second quarter report is the impression of China’s weakest GDP since the first quarter of 2020, when the Covid pandemic first occurred.
Frederic Neumann, co-director of Asian economics at HSBC, said it’s no big surprise given the severe disruptions in logistics and consumption during the Covid blockades. Still, he said the weak GDP report suggests the recovery has not been as strong as expected.
“That means the economy didn’t have any headwinds, even in the third quarter,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.
“Perhaps the message here is that we need even more encouragement, in addition to what has been announced in recent weeks and months,” he added.
Mixed Asian and Pacific markets
In Australia, the S & P / ASX 200 fell 0.77%.
The Kospi of South Korea fought for the lead and was the last 0.34% higher, while the Kosdaq lost 0.31%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.59% higher, while the Topix index was roughly flat.
Shares of Fast Retailing, owned by Uniqlo, rose 8.06% after the company posted a record quarterly profit after closing on Thursday, Reuters reported.
MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan fell 0.33%.
Most major indexes in the region have had a downward trend this week.
“Inflation and rising interest rates, and the fear of a recession, have continued to dominate investment markets over the past week,” wrote Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital, in a statement. note Friday.
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Separately, in China, banking and real estate stocks were affected on Thursday as homebuyers boycotted mortgage payments for unfinished real estate projects.
The South China Morning Post reported Thursday afternoon that the boycott has grown, with buyers from more than 230 properties in 86 cities not paying their mortgages.
Shares of China Overseas Land and Investment lost 1.3% and shares of Longfor fell 4.52% on Friday.
US stock indexes fell on Thursday after disappointing bank gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.46%, or 142.62 points, to 30,630.17, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 3,790.38. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.03% to finish at 11,251.19.
Coins and oils
The US dollar index, which tracks the green dollar compared to a basket from its peers, was last at 108,591. The index rose above 109 briefly in the previous session.
The Japanese yen was at 138.97 per dollar, after weakening beyond 139 against the green dollar on Thursday. The Australian dollar was at $ 0.6743.
Oil futures rose in Asian trade. U.S. crude rose 0.61% to $ 96.36 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 0.9% to $ 99,299 a barrel.
– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng, Samantha Subin and Carmen Reinicke contributed to this report.