Comments
Hong Kong shares plunged on Thursday led by mainland-related stocks, with the Hang Seng Index (.HSI) marking its worst daily performance since August as worries about the health of the global economy sparked a sell-off.
Mainland markets are closed this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, while Hong Kong markets reopened after a three-day break for the same festival.
The Hang Seng Index fell 3.9 per cent to 18,545.80, dragged by the China Enterprises Index which lost 4.9 per cent to 7,657.92 points, its lowest level since 2009.
"There is very little good news and continuous bad news and this is a test of market confidence," said Charles Li, chief executive of the Hong Kong Stock exchange, speaking at a public ceremony marking the Lunar New Year earlier in the day.
On a price-performance basis, Hong Kong's shares have held up relatively better than their mainland counterparts so far this year, but bloody clashes between street vendors and police over the long break stirred concerns about social stability in the former British colony.
Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.9 billion shares
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.