Hong Kong stocks notch first weekly loss in September on valuation, tariff jitters
‘Gravity has reasserted itself’ and the global US$15 trillion rebound this year ‘now feels stretched’, investor says
The Hang Seng Index fell 1.4 per cent to 26,128.20 at the close, taking the loss for the week to 1.6 per cent. The Hang Seng Tech Index tumbled 2.9 per cent.
On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index slid 1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.7 per cent.
A pullback set in after the Hang Seng Index rose to a four-year high last week and an MSCI gauge of global stocks hit a record high on Monday amid euphoria over artificial intelligence and expectations about the impact of the Federal Reserve’s rate cut. Investors are waiting for policy signals from a Communist Party plenum in October, when top leaders will map out the nation’s social and economic development for the next five years.
“Equity valuations, which had been happily floating on the raft of lower-for-longer Fed hopes, suddenly found the water rising beneath them,” said Stephen Innes, a managing partner at SPI Asset Management in Bangkok. “It means traders wake up to a market where gravity has reasserted itself. The global US$15 trillion rebound year to date now feels stretched.”