Hang Seng Tech Index tumbles 7%, extending slump

Represenattive Image

Investors continued to offload shares due to concerns over China’s ties with Russia amid the latter’s invasion of Ukraine as the selloff in Hong Kong — led by Chinese stocks -- extended today on March 15.

The Hang Seng Tech Index tumbled close to 7 percent extending the 11 percent slump on March 14. Monday’s sell-off was the worst the index had seen since its inception in July 2020 with Alibaba Holdings and Tencent being the biggest losers.

Follow our Market LIVE blog here

The sell-offs aligned with the overnight freefall of US-listed Chinese companies, with JPMorgan also terming some of these stocks “un-investable”.

Another factor that played into the negative sentiments is rising COVID-19 cases in China, which has led to over 17 million people being put under lockdown in cities and regions including Shanghai, Shenzen and Jilin. The Omicron-led deadly 5th COVID-19 wave in the Hong Kong administrative region also caused worries and weighed on sentiment.

The rout has pushed the valuation of MSCI China Index versus its global peers to a record low.

Overall, Asian markets are trading lower with Hang Seng down nearly 4 percent, Shanghai Composite down over 2 percent. However, US markets ended on mixed note on March 15.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative start for the broader index in India, with a loss of 110 points or 0.65 percent. The Nifty futures were trading around 16,773 level on the Singaporean Exchange at 7:30 IST.

Meanwhile, data from the National Bureau of Statistics on March 15 showed that China's industrial output in the first two months of 2022 rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier, accelerating from the 4.3 percent expansion in December 2021.

Output of China’s mining industry jumped 9.8 percent year-on-year (YoY), while that of the manufacturing sector grew 7.3 percent and that of the utilities industry climbed 6.8 percent.