HSI Ekes Out Gains Despite Virus Jitters

The Hang Seng Index edged up slightly on Wednesday, reaching a one-month high, as investors returned from a typhoon-induced day off to mounting global coronavirus counts and vaccine hiccups.

The local benchmark closed up 17 points at 24,667. Turnover was HK$154.3 billion.

Tech shares led the gains, with heavyweights Tencent and Alibaba each scaling new highs.

Tencent finished the day up 3 percent at HK$573.5, while Alibaba rallied close to 2 percent to HK$297.6.

Xiaomi, meanwhile, jumped 2.4 percent.

HSBC dipped 3 percent to HK$30.5 on reports that the bank was excluded from China’s debt fundraising.

Shares in China Evergrande Group fell 17 percent after the country's most indebted property developer trimmed its share sale to shore up its balance sheet under the government's new debt-ratio caps.

Shares across the border failed to hold on to gains despite President Xi Jinping's speech touting Shenzhen’s vital role in the Greater Bay Area. The Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Composite Index each lost 0.6 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 Index gave up 0.7 percent.

Markets elsewhere in the region were mostly lower as well, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on sentiment.

Japan's Nikkei 225 erased early losses to add 0.1 percent.

South Korea's Kospi skidded 0.9 percent and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia lost 0.3 percent.

Taiwan and Singapore were also down. (Additional reporting by Reuters)