It’s up! No, now it’s down! Hang Seng benchmark puts Hong Kong traders on wild roller-coaster ride on fast-moving news
- Hang Seng was up Monday. Then down Tuesday and Wednesday. A big gain on Thursday was followed by a nail-biting drop Friday
- Hong Kong stocks too volatile for ‘mom and pop’ investors to try to buy and sell very quickly to make profits, says analyst Kenny Wen
Disneyland and Ocean Park may be closed due to the coronavirus. But Hong Kong stocks have offered their own roller-coaster ride this week.
The Hang Seng Index finished down 2.3 per cent to 26,146.67, with all 50 of its constituents posting losses, following the market rout in the US on concerns about the human and economic costs of the spreading coronavirus epidemic.
The benchmark pulled back up a bit as it neared the close, eking out a teensy weekly gain of 0.06 per cent after declining for the last two consecutive weeks.
This week, Hong Kong’s benchmark was up Monday. Then down Tuesday. Down again Wednesday. Then it shot up Thursday by 2.1 per cent. That was then its biggest daily closing percentage gain in a month.
Global news has roiled markets this week, with headlines on everything from the coronavirus spreading and US markets tanking to the surprise big showing of moderate Joe Biden in the US Democratic “Super Tuesday” primaries to the emergency rate cut by the US Federal Reserve Board. The impact on markets of such headlines is amplified in our “infodemic” age of people feasting on online news and sharing on social media, according to behavioural economist Richard Peterson.
“For experienced investors, they may buy low, sell high. But normal retail investors, may be better to wait and see,” said Kenny Wen, wealth management strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai.