Record turnover as panicked investors send stock market tumbling
Hong Kong shares plunged yesterday as investors panicked after sharp falls in the United States and European markets on Tuesday.
The tumble was mirrored by other Asia Pacific stock markets, except the mainland's, which recovered from Tuesday's record fall that helped spark the global sell-off.
In a day of record turnover on the Hong Kong exchange, the benchmark Hang Seng Index plunged as much as 765.99 points, or 3.8 per cent, in early trading before clawing back some of the losses to close down 2.5 per cent at 19,651.51, lifted by the mainland rebound. The H-share China Enterprise Index slid 3.2 per cent to 9,283.67.
About HK$80.86 billion worth of shares changed hands yesterday, overtaking the previous record of HK$79 billion set in 1998, when the government stepped in to shore up the market in the midst of the Asian financial crisis. Yesterday's plunge wiped HK$374 billion off the market's HK$13 trillion capitalisation, according to figures from the Hong Kong stock exchange.
'Plunging more than 700 points was totally irrational. We saw investors aggressively liquidate their holdings regardless of price in the morning session,' said Castor Pang, a strategist with Sun Hung Kai Financial.