Market Open: Hong Kong stocks, A-shares open lower, automakers lead losses; yuan’s fixing cut to weakest since Sept 2020
Market Open: Hong Kong stocks, A-shares open lower, automakers lead losses; yuan’s fixing cut to weakest since Sept 2020

Market Open: Hong Kong stocks, A-shares open lower, automakers lead losses; yuan’s fixing cut to weakest since Sept 2020

 

>>REAL-TIME UPDATES IN THE WIRE. CLICK HERE<<<

 

 

Hong Kong stocks open sharply lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index sliding 1.8%, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index down 2.02% and the Hang Seng Tech Index slumping 2.5%.

Technology companies, automakers and drugmakers are leading the losses. BYD Company is diving more than 8% after a filing showed that its long-term investor Berkshire Hathaway sold 1.33 million of BYD’s H-shares, the investor’s first stake cut in BYD in 14 years. Baidu is tumbling 6.6%, Alibaba down more than 3%, Kuaishou, Tencent, Meituan and JD.com also lower.

Sports goods producers, mainland property developers, online healthcare companies, oil companies and financial stocks are mostly lower, while shipping companies, electric power companies, telecoms companies and lithium battery producers are outperforming.

Chinese A-shares open down, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.33%, the Shenzhen Component Index down 0.51% and the tech-heavy Chinext Price Index down 0.61%.

Automakers, oil and gas companies, coal miners, precious metal companies, catering and tourism companies are leading the losses, while home appliance makers, property developers, airlines and airport operators are outperforming.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut the yuan’s fixing by 104 pips to 6.8906 per US dollar, the weakest level since September 2020, compared to a fixing of 6.8802 one day earlier. For the whole of August, the yuan’s fixing weakened by 1,469 pips per US dollar.

The central bank injects 2 billion yuan liquidity to the banking system via 7-day reverse repo on Wednesday, while 2 billion yuan reverse repo expires, leaving a net zero injection.