Hang Seng posts 16 per cent quarterly loss, joining other Asian stocks in brutal start to year due to coronavirus pandemic
- Volatility defined first quarter, with all major benchmarks in bear markets except for China’s
- Asia stock markets have had rough start to year. Australia, Japan and Korea saw quarterly fall of at least 20 per cent
Most Asia markets advanced Tuesday, in an ironic ending to a volatile and brutal quarter in which the coronavirus pandemic left even top-name stocks in tatters.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished with a quarterly loss of 16.3 per cent, having fallen into a bear market in mid-March. On Tuesday, it gained 1.9 per cent to 23,603.48.
Hong Kong investors have been hit and hit and hit: The destructive virus arrived on the heels of months-long protests and the US-China trade war that battered the city’s economy and the share prices of many of its companies.
China Southern Airlines, China’s largest airline, ended the quarter down by 37 per cent, as the virus grounded travel. Sands China, whose glitzy casinos are nearly empty due to virus-related travel restrictions into Macau, dropped nearly 32 per cent in the quarter.
Even Alibaba, whose secondary listing in Hong Kong in November was heralded as the start of Chinese companies listed in the US coming closer to home, fell 11.5 per cent in the quarter. The e-commerce giant, which owns the South China Morning Post, is considered a bellwether of the China economy.