China stocks fall as chip, robotics sell-off overshadows Unitree IPO

HONG KONG: Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday as semiconductor and robotics shares sold off amid concerns about the broader economy and disappointing corporate earnings, while Hong Kong shares edged up.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index fell 2.9 percent at close, the biggest single-day percentage loss in a month, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.4 percent.

Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng inched up 0.09 percent.

Shares in Unitree, China’s best-known humanoid robot maker, soared 460 percent on its first trading day after its listing in Shanghai.

Investors see the IPOas pivotal for the country’s robotics sector, which has become a key battleground in the Sino-US tech war.

Still, the broader CSI Robot Index slumped 7.9 percent, while telecommunications and semiconductor stocks lost8 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, leading the decline and tracking a retreat in global tech stocks amid surging long-term borrowing costs.

“China’s weakness today looks more like a combination of global yield pressure, some rotation out of crowded technology trades and company-specific earnings disappointments than simply a Unitree liquidity drain,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Singapore.