HSI slides on China liquidity, US stimulus worries

Local shares slumped on Tuesday, giving back all the gains made the previous day, amid worries over liquidity in the world’s second largest economy ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Concern spurred by the People’s Bank of China withdrawing cash from the financial sector added to worries about potential hurdles facing new US President Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package.

Locally, the Hang Seng Index missed the 30,000-mark at open and continued to slide. It finished down 767 points or 2.6 percent, at 29,391.

Market turnover reached nearly HK$279 billion.

Several of the market’s top performers from the day before became the biggest losers on Tuesday. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing slipped 7.2 percent. Tencent lost more than six percent. Meituan gave up 5.3 percent.

But some property firms bucked the trend. The top blue-chip gainer was Wharf Real Estate Investment Company, which jumped almost three percent, while Hang Lung Properties put on more than one percent.

Markets across the border also ended in negative territory. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.5 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index slid two percent. The Shenzhen Composite index also closed down two percent.

Around the region, the Nikkei in Japan shed one percent. Seoul’s Kospi lost more than two percent. Taiwan slid 1.8 percent. Singapore was about one percent lower. But Australia added 0.4 percent.