Hang Seng settles marginally lower with mainland telecoms counters weighing on session's result
The market finished marginally lower yesterday after a range-bound session in which the Hang Seng Index twice tried, but failed, to break above 14,200 points.
Late in the afternoon, news of an explosion in Barcelona prompted a sell-off that trimmed 80 points off the blue-chip index within minutes. One policeman was injured and a bomb-sniffing dog was killed by the blast, but it turned out to be a minor incident and the market was able to recover about 60 per cent of those losses before the close.
Still, the market reaction showed that even though global equity markets recovered quickly after the bombings in London last week, investors remained jittery about further terrorist attacks, one trader said.
The retracement came after the index added 192.77 points on Monday in its biggest one-day gain in five months and, as a result, it was generally described by brokers as 'natural' or 'healthy'.
'The index is well supported at 14,000 and I think that the market is strong now,' said Linus Yip, a strategist with First Shanghai Securities.