- China’s official PMI manufacturing index rose to 50.1 in January, ending a three months of contraction, according to the statistics bureau
- Morgan Stanley reiterates buy-the-dip call after the Hang Seng Index slumped on Monday amid concerns about rapid, excessive gains this year
Most Hong Kong stocks declined as traders await more recovery signals in the Chinese economy amid worries about another interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve later this week. BYD jumped after the electric-car maker projected a record quarterly earnings.
The Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 per cent to 21,915.05 as of 11.10am local time, after rising as much as 1 per cent. The index slumped almost 3 per cent on Monday. The Tech Index retreated 1 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 per cent.
Alibaba Group fell 1.1 per cent to HK$107.70 while Tencent Holdings tumbled 2.4 per cent to HK$378 while JD.com lost 2.2 per cent to HK$232.20. Wuxi Biologics dropped 2.8 per cent to HK$65.15 and Sunny Optical Technology slipped 1.8 per cent to HK$106.80.
“The market has been running a bit hard in the short term,” said Willer Chen, senior analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia in Hong Kong. “Some stocks may not see much room for further gain before real fundamental recovery” is established, he added. “More proof of consumption and property recovery could boost investor confidence.”
Stocks weakened despite a government report showing the official PMI manufacturing index rising to 50.1 from a three-year-low in December, China’s statistics bureau said on Tuesday.
The Fed holds its first policy meeting of the year this week and is likely to continue hiking this year to slow down inflation, despite expectations for a downshift, according to market consensus.
The Hang Seng wavered earlier this week after a three-month rally lifted the city’s benchmark index to an 11-month high. January’s advance alone has amounted to more than 12 per cent, the index’s best start to a year since 1996, as the city’s stock market regained almost US$400 billion of capitalisation.
“We stay overweight on Chinese equities given the on-track macro recovery,” Morgan Stanley strategist Laura Wang said in a research note on Tuesday. The investment bank sees the market pullback as an opportunity to buy the dip, she added.
Elsewhere, car maker BYD rose to the highest level in five months. The carmaker said it expects 2022 earnings to reach as high as 17 billion yuan (US$2.52 billion) on record sales, according to an exchange filing. That suggests its fourth-quarter earnings could jump by 13 times to a record 7.7 billion yuan.