HSI ends in the red on profit-taking, virus fears

Local shares were down across the board on Friday afternoon, as investors reaped profits from recent highs fuelled by expectations on newly installed US president Joe Biden and the mainland’s effort to contain coronavirus outbreaks ahead of the Lunar New Year.

A day after breaching the 30,000-mark, the Hang Seng Index opened lower and saw its losses widen to more than 500 points at one point, before clawing back a little to close at 29,447, down 479 points or 1.6 percent, on a turnover of HK$244.2 billion.

Still, the local benchmark gained three percent for the week.

The day’s biggest blue-chip loser was CNOOC, which plunged 5.6 percent, after index provider MSCI announced that it will remove the mainland oil giant from some of its products in response to a US blacklist.

Other mainland oil companies also came under pressure. Sinopec lost 3.9 percent and Petrochina tumbled 4.2 percent.

Financials retreated as well. AIA dropped 3.3 percent, Ping An Insurance slipped three percent.

But heavyweight Tencent went the other direction to gain 1.3 percent. Meituan also added 1.3 percent.

Mainland markets were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.4 percent, but the blue-chip CSI300 index edged up 0.1 percent. The Shenzhen Composite index added 0.3 percent.

Around the region, Japan’s Nikkei gave up 0.4 percent. The Kospi in Seoul eased 0.6 percent. Australia trimmed about a third of one percent. Taiwan was off 0.8 percent, dragged by a slide by heavyweight TSMC. Singapore declined about one percent.