Market Open: Hang Seng may fall as short selling ratio rises

Jeanny Yu

BIO

Jeanny Yu covers stock markets for the South China Morning Post, with a focus on Hong Kong equities. She interviews top economists, fund managers and key market players. She is a graduate of the University of Hong Kong and used to work for Bloomberg and Hong Kong Economic Journal.

Hang Seng may be in for a correction after the short-selling ratio rose on Monday, a sign that investors may lock in earlier gains on worries about upcoming earnings.

A stream of profit warnings from small and mid-cap firms, including China Haisheng Juice (0359.HK), Xiangyu Dredging (0871.HK) and International Elite (1328.HK). The short-selling ratio rose to 8.2 per cent on Monday, up from a one-week low of 7.2 per cent last Friday.

Vanke Property (Overseas) (1036.HK) said it expects full-year profit for 2012 would slump. The stock surged Monday on news that its parent company, the nation's biggest property developer by revenue, plans to move trading of its foreign-currency shares to Hong Kong from Shenzhen.

On the policy side, China plans to shut more factories and impose harsher fines on drivers for excessive vehicle emissions as the country's pollution made international headlines recently. The PM2.5, a measure for gauging the air quality, hit more than 400 in the capital city of Beijing last week, far higher than the 25 level, which the WHO considers the upper limit for human health.