Hong Kong stocks extended losses in afternoon trading, as authorities again left investors guessing on the specifics of a fiscal stimulus even as their key policy meeting vowed to boost consumption.
The Hang Seng Index dropped over 2%, falling below 20,000 as of 03.20pm local time. The Hang Seng Tech Index retreated 2.6%.
The readout of the annual China economic conference, which was published by the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday night, largely repeated the language used in a Politburo meeting earlier this week, pledging to use looser monetary tools, raise the deficit ratio and stabilise home prices in 2025. The statement was devoid of concrete details about what stimulus measures the government would take next year.
The underwhelming performance shows investors are still waiting for detailed measures following repeated, broad pledges by top leaders in recent months to reinvigorate the economy. While some economists say that Beijing may be deliberately holding back policy details before tensions rise under the second Donald Trump presidency, the market’s reaction is a reminder of authorities’ challenges to restore investor confidence after several similar false dawns.
In terms of star stocks, XPeng fell 6%; SMIC and Bilibili fell 5%; Li Auto, BYD, and Meituan fell 4%; SenseTime, NIO, and Trip.com fell 3%; JD.com fell 2%; Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi fell more than 1%.