HONG KONG: Chinese stocks fell the most in six weeks in Hong Kong trading after commodity prices plunged and the nation’s broadest measure of new credit slumped.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 1.8 percent to 10,222.71 at 9:46 a.m. local time, dragged down by oil companies and banks. China Construction Bank Corp. and PetroChina Co. retreated at least 2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.5 percent, paring a loss of as much as 1.1 percent as airlines and utilities rallied.
Chinese stocks joined a global rout after commodities plunged — with oil trading near $42 a barrel and copper approaching a six-year low — amid concern the nation’s slowdown will crimp demand globally. Aggregate financing slid to 476.7 billion yuan ($75 billion), the People’s Bank of China said after the market closed on Thursday. That was the lowest level in 15 months and less than half the median forecast of 1.05 trillion yuan.
“The Hong Kong market is more subject to overseas capital flows,” said Wang Zheng, the Shanghai-based chief investment officer at Jingxi Investment Management Co., who recently increased his stock holdings to between 80 percent and 90 percent of assets. “The global markets aren’t doing well and China’s economic fundamentals aren’t picking up. That’s why stocks are falling there.”
