Hong Kong shares fell for a second day on Friday, racheting up it biggest weekly loss in seven weeks as sharp falls in mainland stocks and a weaker yuan hurt the sentiment.
“The depreciation in the yuan will continue to pile pressure on Hong Kong’s market as investors are worried about less capital flows to the local market,’’ said Shi Wenbien, analyst at Yuanta Securities in Shanghai, adding the index faces upside resistance as it is trading far above its 250-day average.
The Hang Seng index fell 0.4 per cent to 24,507.05, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.1 per cent to 11,720.10 points. The index lost 1.4 per cent for the week but rose 3.8 per cent for the month of January.
Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were Bank of China, down 0.2 per cent at HK$4.34; Gome, down 0.9 per cent to HK$1.07; and Time2U, unchanged at HK$0.67.
Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.51 billion yuan of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.
Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.5 billion shares.