Hong Kong Shares End Slightly Down

Hong Kong shares ended Tuesday slightly down, with markets around Asia also lacking direction as investors looked ahead to this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

Investors have adopted a wait-and-see approach ahead of a big week of key events including the Fed's latest policy meeting, US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, and earnings reports from tech titans Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet.

The Fed's gathering, which concludes on Wednesday, is broadly expected to see it reassert its pledge to maintain ultra-loose policy until its goals on unemployment and inflation are met.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index dipped 0.04 percent, or 11 points, to close at 28,941.

Turnover was HK$145.4 billion.

HSBC gained around 2 percent after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Meituan, China’s biggest on-demand delivery service provider, also rose around 2 percent as Beijing’s antitrust probe into the company came within market expectations.

Markets across the border barely moved, with Shanghai inching up 1.45 points, and Shenzhen edging 0.62 points higher.

Asian markets also swung in and out of positive territory.

The Nikkei in Tokyo fell almost half a percent. Canon closed down 1.3 percent on profit-taking after the company boosted its full-year profit forecast.

Japan Airlines, meanwhile, edged up slightly after it said its full-year loss would be smaller than expected thanks to cost-cutting efforts.

Taiwan added 0.1 percent, while Singapore also ended the day marginally higher.

But Sydney and Seoul were both in the red, dipping almost 0.2 and 0.1 percent respectively.