Citic Securities, Huatai Securities, China Galaxy Securities sink in Hong Kong market rout

China brokerages were slammed in a massive H-share selloff in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning as mainland markets continued to sink.

Citic Securities shed 10.3 per cent to HK$18.92, Huatai Securities fell 12.5 per cent to HK$14.22 and China Galaxy Securities lost 10.8 per cent to HK$5.84.

China Central Securities slid 8.5 per cent to HK$3.88 despite announcing an expected profits increase of 70 per cent for the first half of the year. It also attempted to reverse bearish sentiment by announcing that some of its employees were raising funds to purchase HK$60 million of its H-shares through the QDII scheme.

Major player Haitong Securities avoided further losses when it suspended its H-shares from trading on Wednesday morning. On Monday night the firm pledged 15 billion yuan to support mainland markets as part of government-mandated stimulus efforts, and on Tuesday its share price sank 13.2 per cent to HK$13.90.

Haitong said the suspension was due to a pending announcement on a potential share repurchase. There was a rash of trading halt notices on the Hong Kong exchange in the morning with 14 other companies taking their stock out of harm’s way.

On the mainland, some 51 per cent of A shares had been voluntarily suspended from trading by Wednesday morning, locking up US$2.2 trillion of market capitalisation across the border.