HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks fell the most in three weeks on Friday, bringing the week's loss to over 2 percent, as concerns of a global trade war hit already shaky confidence due to prospects of a faster pace of US monetary tightening.
US President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, sparking concerns of a global trade war.
The Hang Seng index fell 1.5 percent, to 30,583.45, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.8 percent to 12,203.91 points.
Major Chinese steelmaker Angang Steel fell over 2 percent, Maanshan Iron lost nearly 5 percent while Aluminum Corp of China was down 2.6 percent.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 1.8 percent while the IT sector dipped 2.21 percent, the financial sector was 1.75 percent lower and the property sector dipped 1 percent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Power Assets Holdings Ltd up 1.94 percent, while the biggest loser was CNOOC Ltd , down 3.02 percent.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.8 percent to 4,016.46 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 percent to 3,254.53.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.86 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 2.5 percent.
The yuan was quoted at 6.3491 per US dollar at 08:15 GMT, 0.13 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3575.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 3.76 percent this year, while China's H-share index was up 6.1 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 0.65 percent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were Huaneng Power International Inc up 2.22 percent, followed by Sinopharm Group gaining 1.76 percent and CGN Power Co Ltd up by 0.96 percent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were New China Life Insurance Co Ltd which was down 3.74 percent, China Citic Bank Corp Ltd which fell 3.6 percent and China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd down by 3.3 percent.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.76 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
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