HKEx, Tech Stocks Drag HSI Into The Red

Local and mainland shares finished Friday in the red, despite other markets in the region heading north ahead of a closely watched US jobs report due out later in the day.

The Hang Seng Index took its cue from Wall Street and started the day up and rose as many as 246 points.

But it changed direction in the afternoon session, and dipped into negative territory. It pared back some of those losses to close 26 points, or 0.1 percent, lower at 28,610.

Market turnover was HK$153.5 billion.

For the week, the local benchmark lost 0.4 percent.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing slid into negative territory after lunch and widened its losses after Bloomberg reported that Beijing regulators are looking into tightening rules for companies planning to list in Hong Kong or overseas. That report was later denied by the regulators.

The bourse operator ended the day down 2.7 percent.

Heavyweight Tencent also failed to hold on to early gains to decline 1.7 percent. Other tech shares also underperformed. Meituan, Xiaomi and Alibaba each gave up about one percent.

But the biggest blue-chip loser was Sunny Optical, which dived 8.1 percent.

Property stocks bucked the trend, with Wharf Real Estate Investment jumping up 2.9 percent. Hang Lung Properties put on two percent and New World Development was also up 1.6 percent.

Markets across the border also closed in negative territory, despite the release of positive trade figures.

The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.7 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index retreated 1.3 percent. The Shenzhen Composite was 1.6 percent lower.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei in Japan recovered early losses to put on just under 0.1 percent. Seoul's Kospi added 0.6 percent, Australia was 0.3 percent firmer, Taiwan gained 1.7 percent, and Singapore inched up 0.8 percent.