Hong Kong shares continued to move lower on Wednesday, unable to resist the impact of weaker global bourses, more fragile risk conditions and weaker energy prices.
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Most sectors fell, with resource shares among the biggest decliners.
Stocks in Hong Kong pared losses after the release of the PMI data and the Australian dollar edged up against the USA dollar.
Still, the energy sector was up 1% on the S&P/ASX 200, broadly bouncing back from steep losses on Wednesday.
Hong Kong shares tracked USA markets lower, as worries about global economic growth resurfaced.
Earlier in the day, the Caixin services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) came in at 51.8 in April, down from 52.2 in March.
Chinese online major Tencent Holdings fell 0.5 per cent to HK$153.7 and telecoms giant China Mobile was 0.2 per cent lower at HK$87.9. Supermarket giant Woolworths fell as much as 7 percent after Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating following poor sales figures. US stocks were poised to open higher, with Dow futures gaining 0.3 percent to 17,634.00 and the broader S&P 500 futures rising 0.3 percent to 2,053.30. The benchmark Kospi average slid 9.70 points or 0.49 percent to 1,976.71, with commodity-related stocks pacing the declines.
The smaller Shenzhen index opened 0.39 percent lower at 10,401.67 points. The stock has a weekly performance of 2.86 percent and is -22.19 percent year-to-date as of the recent close.
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Xero tumbled 3.5 percent to hit a one-month low and Air New Zealand slumped 5.4 percent to erase all of its gains posted in the previous session, while Sky Network Television rose 1.8 percent to reach a nine-month high. Trading in the region was thinner than usual because markets were closed in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia for holidays.
