Hong Kong shares pounded by midday, with casino firms taking biggest hit

Hong Kong stocks dropped across the board on Monday morning as the Hang Sang Index plummeted, extending the rout seen from late last week. Sands China and Galaxy Entertainment were the worst hit of the majors, losing 5.72 per cent to HK$26.35 and 5.17 per cent to HK$31.15 respectively.

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The gaming table in Sands China, whose shares and those of other major companies in Hong Kong, were pounded in a market rout on Monday. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:15pm, 29 Jun 2015Updated: 3:48pm, 29 Jun 2015

Hong Kong stocks dropped across the board on Monday morning as the Hang Sang Index plummeted, extending the rout seen from late last week.

Sands China and Galaxy Entertainment were the worst hit of the majors, losing 5.72 per cent to HK$26.35 and 5.17 per cent to HK$31.15 respectively.

The share prices of Lenovo Group, Tencent and Ping An each dropped by between four and five percentage points. ICBC, Bank of Communications and China Resources Land were among those that lost between three and four percentage points.

Stocks losing two to three percentage points included Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, China Construction Bank, AIA, China Life, Citic, Wharf Holdings, New World Development, Sino Land and Sinopec.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing led turnover and was down 2.46 per cent to HK$277.20 at midsession with many blue and red chips following in its wake.

The losses followed on from Friday’s carnage on mainland Chinese markets which prompted the central bank to slash interest rates over the weekend.