China, HK stocks dip with earnings, US tech restrictions in focus
HONG KONG - Chinese and Hong Kong stocks dropped on Friday, as market sentiment came under pressure from renewed U.S.-China tech tensions and a disappointing earnings report from Alibaba.
Both markets ended the week positively, with the Hang Seng Index posting a fifth consecutive weekly gain.
** At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.4%; while China's blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.46%.
** Liquor and insurance companies led the decline, both dropping 1.4%.
** In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index retreated 0.46%.
** Index heavyweight Alibaba Group lost more than 4% after the e-commerce giant posted quarterly revenue below analysts' estimates on Thursday.
** On the geopolitical front, the U.S. Commerce Department is considering placing more Chinese companies, including ChangXin Memory (CXMT), on its restricted export list, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
** The Bureau of Industry and Security is also looking at adding subsidiaries of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co to the "Entity List", the source said.
** "Market focus has shifted to the U.S.-China competition on other fields, such as semiconductor and healthcare, after the two countries significantly reduced tariffs for each other," said Dickie Wong, executive director of research at Kingston Securities.
** While U.S.-China tariff truce is a positive surprise to the market, a durable resolution remains challenging, given the complex bilateral relationship, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note, adding sentiment on mainland A-shares edged down this week with lower trading volume.
** The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 0.18% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.186%.
** Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech edged down 0.3% as a 13% jump in gaming firm Netease on strong earnings partially offset the loss in Alibaba.
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