HSI Sinks Below 27,000 On Beijing Crackdown

Mainland regulatory clampdowns on the education and tech sectors sent tremors through the Hong Kong stock market on Monday, sparking a selloff that shaved more than 1,000 points from the Hang Seng Index.

The local benchmark started the week sharply lower, down nearly 500 points, and the share-dumping accelerated during the day. The index closed near its lowest point of the day, finishing down 1,129 points, or 4.1 percent, at 26,192.

Market turnover was HK$268.2 billion.

Tech and stocks related to the mainland education sector were battered. The Hang Seng Tech Index tumbled nearly seven percent.

Following a crackdown on the education sector on Friday, regulators in Beijing announced a six-month campaign against internet apps to rectify what it described as serious problems that violate consumer rights and cyber security and disturb market order.

Heavyweight Tencent slumped 7.7 percent, after mainland authorities ordered the internet giant to give up its exclusive music rights and slapped a fine of 500,000 yuan for regulatory breaches in its acquisition of China Music in 2016.

Meituan sank 13.8 percent after regulators issued guidelines on protecting the rights of food delivery staff.

Alibaba slid 6.4 percent. Xiaomi lost 1.2 percent.

New Oriental Education and Technology Group, Scholar Education Group and China BestStudy Education Group each plunged more than 40 percent.

But utilities bucked the trend. CLP Holdings gained 1.7 percent. Power Assets put on 1.2 percent.

It was a similar story on the mainland. The Shanghai Composite Index slid 2.3 percent to its lowest close in more than two months, while the blue-chip CSI300 index gave up 3.2 percent. The Shenzhen Composite was off 2.3 percent.

Taiwan shed almost one percent. Seoul's Kospi retreated 0.9 percent. Singapore was down 0.6 percent. But the Nikkei added one percent. Australia was flat.