The Hang Seng plunged 182 points or 1.0% to finish at 17,692 on Wednesday, halting strength in the previous two sessions due to sharp losses across all sectors.
Sentiment was downbeat after Bloomberg News said that protests in China could be on the rise as the effects of a weak economy burden citizens. The index retreated from a near six-week high, with traders taking a cautious stance ahead of earnings reports from Nvidia and the US PCE index.
Meanwhile, official PMI figures in China will be due over the weekend, amid lingering concerns about disinflation risks, shaky demand, and persistent weakness in the property sector. Shares of Nongfu Spring slumped over 10% after the firm logged a much slower profit growth in H2 of 2024, on a tough domestic price war. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group fell 1.1%, on the first trading day after upgrading its Hong Kong listing to primary status. Other big drags were Sunshine Insurance (-8.5%), Shinzhou Intl. (-5.7%), and China Resources Power (-5.0%).
Source: Trading Economics
