SHANGHAI: Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday as the delisting of ride-hailing giant Didi from New York spooked investors and stoked a sell-off in tech giants, while consumer staples helped China shares rise.
The CSI300 index rose 0.4% to 4,872.97 by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6% to 3,594.64.
The Hang Seng index dropped 0.7% to 23,612.43. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 1.2% to 8,404.87.
For the week, the CSI300 index edged up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index lost 1.9%.
Didi Global said it will delist from the New York stock exchange and pursue a listing in Hong Kong, succumbing to pressure from Chinese regulators concerned about data security.
Following the announcement, tech firms listed in Hong Kong slumped more than 2%.
Hong Kong stocks finish higher
"This event makes the market believe that the current industry supervision of technology stocks in the mainland will continue," said Kenny Ng, a securities strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai in Hong Kong.
"The decline in the prices of technology stocks listed in Hong Kong today also reflects this factor."
Alibaba Group and Bilibili Inc fell 4.6% and 7%, respectively, hitting their record lows.
Tencent dropped 2.9%, while Meituan lost 4.5%.
Property developer China Aoyuan Group slumped 16.8% after the developer warned shareholders that it may be unable to pay up a $651.2 million debt due to a liquidity crunch.
Activity in China's services sector expanded at a slower pace in November amid rising inflationary pressures and continuing small-scale COVID-19 outbreaks, a private survey showed.
In mainland markets, consumer staples rose 2.1%, while liquor makers jumped 2.8%.
Semiconductors and utilities gained around 2.1% each, while coal miners surged 3.2%.
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