- China will promote artificial intelligence, modernizing old sectors, and technological innovation while forgoing fresh initiatives to boost the housing market.
- The Hang Seng benchmark has experienced the most losses of any major global stock index this year, down about 18%.
Hong Kong stocks fell as investors became concerned that China’s important policy conference this week would not provide any additional stimulus and would not make any announcements addressing the issues of real estate market.
At the local noon trading break, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.7% to 16,252.67, almost reaching its lowest point in 14 months. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5%, while the Tech Index fell by 0.8%.
Longfor Group tumbled 3 percent to HK$12.36, while peer China Resources Land lost 3.3 percent to HK$26, leading a 2.4 percent retreat in an index tracking mainland Chinese developers. Tencent fell 0.9 percent to HK$308.60, Alibaba Group dropped 0.9 percent to HK$69.45, and JD.com slipped 2.3 percent to HK$98.
In order to support growth and ensure economic stability, China will implement a range of pro-growth policies, as stated in the readout following this week’s annual economic work conference. Technology innovation, modernising established sectors, and artificial intelligence were given top priority by policymakers.
Nevertheless, they made no fresh proposals to boost the collapsing real estate sector. Goldman Sachs claims that the phrase “facilitating the upgrading of housing conditions,” which was discussed in the meeting last year, was removed from this week’s statement.
“The lack of new discussion around the property sector could be disappointing to some investors,” the Wall Street Bank said in a report on Wednesday. “This may suggest the authority is still exploring ways to ensure stable development of the sector.”
In December, the Hang Seng Index fell 4.6%, compounding losses from the four months prior. Based on Bloomberg data, the benchmark has had the greatest decline of all major global stock indices this year, down 18%. This year, a sub-index that tracks developers on the mainland has dropped by 43%.
Ahead of the Federal Reserve’s final policy meeting of the year on Wednesday, Asian equities were neutral. The Nikkei 225 in Japan increased by 0.4%, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia increased by 0.3%, and the Kospi index in Korea decreased by 0.5%.
- Published By Team Hongkong Journalist
