HK, Regional Stocks Finish Lower On Covid Fears

Local shares finished the first day of a shortened week in negative territory and most regional shares also lost ground, tracking losses on Wall Street where investors were spooked by renewed coronavirus fears.

On Tuesday, the Hang Seng Index returned from a long weekend sliding up to more than 300 points at one stage in the morning, but Tencent and HSBC helped it pare some of the losses in the afternoon.

The local benchmark wrapped up the day down 131 points or 0.5 percent at 24,787.

Turnover was HK$130.5 billion.

HSBC surged nearly 5 percent to close at HK$33.8 to become the top blue-chip performer after its quarterly earnings beat estimates.

Tencent soared 4.1 percent, after a US court rejected a Justice Department request to ban the mainland tech firm’s WeChat from being offered in US app stores.

China Resources Land was the biggest loser on the index, sinking more than 5 percent.

Shares on the mainland finished in positive territory. The Shanghai Composite Index reversed from losses and gained 0.1 percent, the blue-chip CSI-300 index was up 0.2 percent, and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.5 percent.

Shares elsewhere in the region skidded after Wall Street suffered its worst day in a month.

Tokyo's Nikkei ended marginally lower. Seoul's Kospi lost 0.5 percent. Taiwan retreated 0.3 percent. Australia slid 1.7 percent. Singapore was also in negative territory.