Disappointing United States job data and a rise in China's inflation weighed on Asian stock markets yesterday, although the mainland's managed to gain ground, lifted by hopes of possible monetary easing policies in coming months.
MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index stocks slipped 0.6 per cent, and the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.15 per cent on its first day of trading after the Easter break.
Li & Fung, which manages supply chains for global retailers, was the worst-performing blue-chip stock, losing 4.41 per cent to close at HK$16.46 on renewed worries of a slowdown in exports because of weaker than expected job growth in the US.
Cheung Kong, the second-largest developer in Hong Kong, was the second worst performing blue chip. It dropped 3.09 per cent to HK$98.75 after Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah warned of a possible property price bubble on Sunday, and urged buyers to be cautious in his official blog.
Property prices had risen 74 per cent since early 2009 and are 5 per cent higher than in 1997, he wrote.
Tsang's speech hit shares of Cheung Kong, whose chairman Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia, only last month ruled out a big fall in home prices.