HONG KONG: Hong Kong shares closed at their lowest level in 11 months and the offshore yuan and Hong Kong dollar weakened on Monday, as a plunge in beleaguered property developer China Evergrande Group led other stocks in the sector lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed down 3.34%, its worst percentage decline in nearly two months, and its lowest close since late-October, dragged down by the property sector.
The blue-chip developer index lost 6.7% and a broad index tracking property and construction stocks fell 6%.
Mainland Chinese stock markets are closed for the mid-autumn festival, although FTSE China futures traded in Singapore shed 3.22%. "Market sentiment is fragile in Hong Kong at the moment," said Dickie Wong, research director at Kingston Securities.
He said the declines were due to growing risks of defaults at Chinese property developers and concerns that Beijing's "common prosperity" agenda would also include Hong Kong real estate names, though he said the latter was likely an overreaction. Beijing has told Hong Kong's powerful property tycoons to do more to help solve the financial hub's potentially destabilising housing shortage, Reuters reported last week.
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