South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
Hong Kong stock market
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
An investor looks through stock information at a trading hall in a securities firm in Shenyang in northeastern Liaoning province. Photo: Xinhua
BusinessChina Business

Hang Seng slides as Meituan, JD.com and tech leaders limp while CNOOC advances on oil price outlook

  • China reported growth in exports, imports in May despite lockdown restrictions, beating consensus forecasts
  • CNOOC advanced as oil prices topped US$122 per barrel amid tight US inventory
Hong Kong stock market
Ann Cao
Ann Caoin Shanghai
Why you can trust SCMP
Hong Kong stocks dropped by the most this week as a rally in Chinese tech stocks cooled. Carmakers and oil producers gained on a brighter industry outlook, while a government report showed growth in China’s external trade accelerated last month.

The Hang Seng Index declined 0.7 per cent to 21,869.05 at the close of Thursday trading, after surging on Wednesday to a two-month high. The Hang Seng Tech Index retreated 1.4 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8 per cent.

Meituan fell 3.1 per cent to HK$201.80 while JD.com eased 2 per cent to HK$249. Haidilao International slumped 5 per cent to HK$15.88 and Anta Sports slipped 4.4 per cent to HK$90.30. China’s top oil explorer CNOOC added 2.1 per cent to HK$11.42 as crude topped US$122 a barrel on tight inventory.

China’s exports grew 16.9 per cent in May from a year earlier, while imports climbed 4.1 per cent, the customs office said on Thursday. Both exceeded market expectations of 8 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively based on consensus tracked by Bloomberg, and also quickened from April.

“[China] has lost too much from March to May” despite the better May data, said Bai Ming, deputy director of state-run International Market Research Institute. “No matter how hard [businesses] work in the second half, it is indeed difficult to catch up.” Recovery will depend on containing Covid-19 cases, he added.

Chinese tech stocks are either a good buy or a trap in market slump, investors say

China’s economic outlook has suffered several downgrades in forecasts as Covid-19 lockdowns hurt factory output. Moody’s last week cut its 2022 GDP estimate to 4.5 per cent versus the official target of 5.5 per cent, even with policy support and infrastructure stimulus.

01:31

Shanghai residents confront officials after swift return of lockdown

Shanghai residents confront officials after swift return of lockdown
A rally in Chinese tech stocks faded in Hong Kong, after reaching the highest level since April 6 this week on speculation China is ending a year-long crackdown on internet-platform companies. Investors remained cautious about the outlook as analysts cut their earnings and price targets.

Bilibili slumped 1.4 per cent to HK$233.20 before its quarterly earnings report today, giving up some of the 19.6 per cent surge on Wednesday. Analysts expect the short-video platform operator to incur a wider loss of 1.85 billion yuan from 904 million a year earlier.

Elsewhere, passenger car sales rose 30 per cent to 1.35 million units in May from a month earlier, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing data from an industry association. XPeng added 0.7 per cent to HK$105.40.

Zhejiang Ronnie Precision Machine, which makes machinery parts, surged 41 per cent to 4.52 yuan in Beijing, the sole market debutant on Thursday. In Asia-Pacific markets, the benchmark fell in Australia and was little changed in Japan and South Korea.

Post