HK, Regional Shares In The Red Over Bond Yields, Oil

Local shares and their regional peers lost ground on Friday as global bond yields spiked again and a decline in oil prices rattled investors.

The Hang Seng Index opened more than 200 points lower and saw its losses widen to 668 points.

It finished the day down 414 points, or 1.4 percent, at 28,990, on turnover of HK$206.2 billion.

For the week, the local benchmark was up 0.9 percent.

Bucking the trend, CK Asset jumped 7.2 percent on Friday to become the day's blue-chip winner after the company announced it was purchasing four projects from founder Li Ka-shing's foundation at HK$17 billion and a share buyback programme.

Xiaomi also managed to squeeze out gains, up 0.2 percent, following reports that the mainland tech firm will be starting to build its own cars soon.

Alibaba also stayed in positive territory, edging up 0.4 percent.

The biggest blue-chip losers were Galaxy Entertainment and mainland hotpot chain Haidilao, each diving more than 6 percent.

Mainland oil giants were also weighed by an overnight sell-off. Sinopec and PetroChina each shed more than 5.5 percent and CNOOC fell 4.7 percent.

Markets across the border underperformed as top officials from China and the US engaged in a war of words in Alaska in their first high-level meeting since Joe Biden took charge of the White House. The Shanghai Composite Index slumped 1.7 percent, and the blue-chip CSI300 index plunged 2.6 percent. The Shenzhen Composite lost 1.7 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei retreated 1.4 percent hurt by the Bank of Japan's decision to only buy Topix-linked exchange-traded funds in its monetary easing programme. Seoul's Kospi slipped 0.9 percent. Taiwan declined 1.3 percent. Australia trimmed 0.6 percent.

In commodities, oil prices steadied on Friday after sinking 7 percent overnight, triggered by worries that demand many not recover as soon as expected.