Hong Kong share prices fell yesterday to their lowest close in more than two months as a slumping Japanese market and ailing yen undermined equities in the region.
The Hang Seng Index lost 286.22 points, or 2.63 per cent, to 10,593.71, its lowest close since February 19.
'Your principal drivers were the Tokyo market and the yen,' South China Brokerage sales executive Douglas Hansen-Luke said.
Investor dissatisfaction with a 16.65 trillion yen (about HK$983.48 billion) stimulus package announced by Japan last Friday knocked 2.26 per cent off the Nikkei-225 Index and sent the yen lower.
Critics said the stimulus package would not turn the Japanese economy around, heightening concern about the region's economic recovery.
In Hong Kong, brokers said last week's statistics showing poor retail sales figures, rising unemployment and slowing gross domestic product growth in the mainland had added to yesterday's selling pressure.
'There's not a lot of new news and what we are seeing isn't very good news,' a director with a European fund-management company said. 'Most of the earnings are already out . . . unemployment's at a full-time high and retail sales are off as well.' The blue-chip index's only gainer was CLP, which announced strong results on Friday.