Local Shares Finish Week With Losses

Hong Kong stocks flipped between gains and losses before ending in the red, as their peers in the region were weighed by concerns that more signs of a US economic recovery could lead to the Federal Reserve scaling back its easing programme earlier.

Weighed by tapering fears and Washington's move to update a blacklist banning investment into mainland firms it deems as being linked to Chinese technology and defence, the Hang Seng Index began the day lower and dipped as much as 228 points during early trading, before climbing back into positive territory.

The benchmark changed directions several times throughout the day, before closing 47 points, or 0.2 percent lower, at 28,918.

Market turnover was HK$193 billion.

For the week, the benchmark trimmed 0.7 percent.

The biggest blue-chip loser of the day was mainland hotpot chain Haidilao, which dived 6.5 percent.

CNOOC, one of the firms included in US President Joe Biden's revised list of mainland firms banned from US investments, shed 1.5 percent.

Other blacklisted companies were mixed. SMIC slid 2.7 percent. China Mobile edged down 0.6 percent. But China Telecom added 0.8 percent and China Unicom put on 0.5 percent.

Meituan dropped 1.6 percent, a day after antitrust regulators asked the food delivery platform and other sharing economy firms to standardise their pricing and competition practices.

But Geely soared 6.2 percent to become the strongest performer on the benchmark.

Across the border, shares recouped earlier losses after financials were boosted by Beijing's proposal to lower stamp duty. The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.2 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index gained 0.5 percent. The Shenzhen Composite was 0.7 percent higher.

Around the region, Japan's Nikkei retreated 0.4 percent. The Kospi in South Korea skidded 0.2 percent. Taiwan and Singapore were also lower. But Australia rose 0.5 percent.