SHANGHAI: Hong Kong shares fell on Friday, dragged by a slump in index heavyweight Alibaba Group after it scrapped plans to spin off its cloud business, while China stocks slipped.
** Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 2.2% and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slumped 2.3% by the midday recess. ** The blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.2%.
** Other Asian shares took a breather as a batch of softer US economic data took some of the steam out of Wall Street, but also boosted bonds in a big way while slugging oil prices in a boon for the inflation outlook.
** E-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s Hong Kong shares slumped 10% after it scrapped plans to spin off its cloud business, citing uncertainties fuelled by US curbs on exports to China of chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
** Also denting sentiment, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s family trust is set to sell 10 million American Depository Shares of Alibaba for about $871 million, the company said in regulatory filings.
** The Hang Seng Tech Index lost 2%, with social media giant Tencent and food-delivery firm Meituan down 2.6% and 3%, respectively.
** Onshore China shares remained weak, following last session’s drop as investors were underwhelmed by a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Hong Kong stocks build on gains at open
** However, analysts at DBS said the Biden-Xi summit “could now bolster sentiment more significantly” although “investor concerns over Chinese growth loom large.”
** “With a thaw in the US-China relations and President Biden saying that the US wants better ties to help China’s economy, there is scope for a return of US investment back into Chinese assets going forward,” they said in a note.
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