SHANGHAI: China and Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, as elevated Sino-US geopolitical tensions dented investor sentiment after US lawmakers on Thursday accused TikTok of serving harmful content as they pushed to ban the app.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index closed down 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6%.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 0.7%, and the China Enterprises Index slid 0.6%.
For the week, CSI 300 Index gained 1.7% and the Hang Seng Index rose 2.0%.
US lawmakers on Thursday battered TikTok’s chief executive, saying the app’s short videos were damaging children’s mental health, pushing further to ban the app nationwide.
The case of TikTok, whose parent is China-based ByteDance, raised tensions between Washington and Beijing. Thursday’s congressional hearing came after the Biden administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential ban, TikTok said last week.
Foreign investors recorded a net selling via the Stock Connect on Friday, after net buying for nine consecutive sessions.
Lingering concerns from the global banking crisis persisted, as Hong Kong’s central bank said on Friday that the city needs to watch carefully for any further “spillover” from US regional banks, although it has very little exposure to the situation in European and US financial institutions.
In China, shares of telecommunication services lost steam and declined 0.9%, with China United Network Communications Ltd, China Mobile Ltd , and China Telecom Corp Ltd, down 4.7%, 2.4%, and 3.8%, respectively.
In Hong Kong, tech stocks and consumer staples shares rose modestly, whereas most other sectors declined. Tech stocks were up 6.2% this week, their best performance since early January.
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