HSI Ends In The Red As Tencent Struggles

Local blue chips finished lower on Tuesday after regulatory panic gripped market heavyweight Tencent.

The Hang Seng Index opened in the red and dropped as many as 461 points before reversing course as Tencent recovered some lost ground.

The benchmark finished the day down 40 points, or less than 0.2 percent, at 26,194, on turnover of HK$203.7 billion.

Tencent plummeted more than 10 percent during early trade after state media branded online video games "spiritual opium" and called for curbs on the industry.

The stock pared some of its losses after the newspaper deleted the article from its website.

Tencent closed 6 percent lower and was the biggest blue-chip loser.

Other firms linked to the video game industry also suffered. NetEase sank nearly 7 percent and CMGE Technology plummeted almost 14 percent.

Alibaba rose 0.8 percent ahead of its earnings announcement.

Standard Chartered edged up 0.6 percent after posting a 57 percent jump in pre-tax profit and announcing a resumption of interim dividend.

Xinyi Solar soared more than 8 percent to become the top blue-chip performer after first-half profit more than doubled for the solar glass manufacturer.

Markets across the border were soft. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.5 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was flat. The Shenzhen Composite shed 0.5 percent.

Taiwan inched up 0.3 percent.

Shares in Japan gave up 0.5 percent, Singapore declined 0.4 percent and Australia retreated 0.2 percent. But South Korea added 0.4 percent.