HK Shares Slip As Investors Eye Fed Rate Hike Clues

Hong Kong's benchmark index widened losses towards the end of trading on Wednesday, while most regional markets were also under pressure as investors stayed on the look out for signs of a rate hike from the US Federal Reserve.

The Hang Seng Index started 29 points lower, and briefly clawed its way into positive territory before staying in the red for the rest of the day.

It finished 201 points, or 0.7 percent, down at 28,436.

Market turnover was HK$138.4 billion.

BYD snapped three days of gains and plunged 8.2 percent to become the day's biggest blue-chip loser. Other mainland carmakers suffered as well, Great Wall Motors slid more than nine percent, while Geely lost 4.1 percent.

Also weighing on the local market was Meituan – the food delivery platform sinking 4.5 percent.

Alibaba retreated 1.5 percent, after a report that cited a Chinese court verdict said a software developer had trawled its shopping website, Taobao, for eight months and taken billions of pieces of user information.

Separately, an executive said during a media interview that the founder of the e-commerce giant, Jack Ma, has been "lying low”.

Financials helped offset some of the benchmark’s losses. HSBC, ICBC and AIA each added more than one percent.

Oil companies were helped by the commodity's bull run. PetroChina jumped up 1.4 percent and Sinopec put on 0.5 percent. But CNOOC edged down 0.2 percent.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.1 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was off 1.7 percent. The Shenzhen Composite tumbled 2.3 percent.

Around the region, the Nikkei in Tokyo shed 0.5 percent, Taiwan inched down 0.4 percent, and Singapore was about one percent lower. But the Kospi in South Korea added 0.6 percent to reach a record closing high and Australia also gained one percent.