Public sentiment swung as wildly as the stock market yesterday, from deep gloom to excitement, with sectors from property to catering fraught by doubts about the future while a few canny - or lucky - investors made a quick killing.
'This is the most exciting day in decades,' said Ki Chi-ling, 58, a 30-year investor with a portfolio of HK$1 million, as he counted his gains.
Mr Ki, who spent the whole day at home monitoring the market, bought warrants in the afternoon and made an instant profit of several thousand dollars as the Hang Seng Index clawed back its losses of earlier in the day. 'I found the stock market really weird,' he said with a smile. 'How could it be that exciting?'
While not all small investors were as bold as Mr Ki, despair turned to relief among people monitoring stock prices at investment companies in Central when the market bounced back.
Earlier, they had stared glumly at the screens barely uttering a word. 'I lost a lot of my savings,' said one elderly investor when the index was at its lowest.
But smiles returned with the rebound and animated discussions broke out about the performance of individual stocks.
Real estate agents, meanwhile, expected the stock market volatility to affect mainly luxury developments and office buildings.
