Hang Seng Index tumbles on fresh Covid jitters

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  • 2021-03-24 HKT 16:54″ title=”The Hang Seng Index falls to a two-and-a-half-month low on Wednesday. Image: Shutterstock”>


    The Hang Seng Index falls to a two-and-a-half-month low on Wednesday. Image: Shutterstock
    The Hang Seng Index falls to a two-and-a-half-month low on Wednesday. Image: Shutterstock

The local benchmark fell below 28,000 on Wednesday and regional shares dipped to a two-week low as new lockdowns in Europe as well as potential US tax hikes spooked investors.

The Hang Seng Index opened 59 points lower and deepened its losses throughout the day.

It closed down 579 points, or 2 percent, at 27,918, on turnover of HK$190.2 billion.

Mainland automaker Geely was the biggest blue-chip loser for a second day, diving almost 12 percent.

Also underperforming were smartphone equipment makers. Sunny Optical tumbled 5.8 percent and AAC Technologies lost 4.2 percent.

Meituan skidded 4.9 percent. Both Tencent and Xiaomi fell ahead of their earnings announcements.

Video-sharing platform Kuaishou plummeted 12 percent, a day after reporting its net loss ballooned by almost five times to more than 116 billion yuan.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite index lost 1.3 percent, while the CSI300 index retreated 1.6 percent. The Shenzhen Composite declined 1.4 percent.

For the region, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan slipped to its lowest since March 9.

The Nikkei in Japan gave up 2 percent. South Korea’s Kospi edged down 0.3 percent. Taiwan shed 0.9 percent. But both Singapore and Australia shares finished higher.