The Hang Seng Index fell 2.55 per cent to 21,107.37 as of 11:27am local time, while the Tech Index lost 4 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 1 per cent.
Alibaba Group lost 3.77 per cent to HK$102.10, and Tencent dropped 2.86 per cent to HK$374. Baidu tumbled 3.31 per cent to HK$140, and JD.com slumped 5.03 per cent to HK$219.2. Developer Country Garden slid 3.93 per cent to HK$2.69. Macau casino operator Sands China lost 2.95 per cent to HK$28.
The city’s benchmark stock index lost 4.5 per cent last week, the most since late October. Mainland investors sold HK$17.5 billion (US$2 billion) worth of Hong Kong-listed stocks last week, reducing net inflows this year to about US$500 million, according to Stock Connect data.
Almost 60 per cent of Chinese companies lost money in 2022, the highest in at least a decade, according to data compiled by Industrial Securities last week, based on reports released so far this year. China Hongqiao, the world’s largest aluminium producer, warned net profit could decrease 40 per cent in 2022. It crashed 5.9 per cent to HK$8.36, the biggest drop since November last year.
“Some investors are cashing out after profiting from the powerful rally during the past few months,” Zhang Qiyao, strategist at Industrial Securities said in a research note on Monday. The sentiment is also dipping as the market expects underwhelming earnings reports against the backdrop of weak economic data, he added.
Asian markets were mixed on Monday. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo jumped 1.1 per cent, while the benchmark indexes in South Korea and Australia dropped 0.2 to 0.8 per cent.