After falling more than 700 points yesterday (13th), the Hang Seng Index struggled today (16th), opening low by 174 points before turning up, rising to 229 points to 20,548 points, but falling back again at the end of the day to close down 31 points or 0.2% at 20,286 points; the National Index fell 9 points or 0.1% to close at 7,267 points; the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 48 points or 1.1% to close at 4,402 points. The total turnover of the market shrank to 208.369 billion yuan throughout the day.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, along with the People's Bank of China, will hold a press conference tomorrow (17th) to promote the development of the housing market. Mainland real estate stocks surged, with Sunac China Holdings (01918.HK) and Agile Group (02777.HK) up 40% and 33%, Vanke (02202.HK), Country Garden Services Holdings (01813.HK), Kaisa Prosperity (00884.HK), and Oceanwide Holdings (03377.HK) up 17% to 19%, Country Garden (03383.HK) and Shimao Services (01030.HK) up 11% and 12%, Green Town China (00817.HK) and Longfor Group (00960.HK) up 8.5% and 7.8%. Building material stocks followed the uptrend, with China National Building Material (03323.HK) and BBMG Corporation (02009.HK) up 8%, Maanshan Iron & Steel (00323.HK) and Conch Cement (00914.HK) up over 4%.
Announcing in the Policy Address that the HK government will allow the "New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme" to invest in luxury homes. The HKMA will adjust the maximum loan-to-value ratio for residential properties to a flat 70%, boosting local real estate stocks, with Sino Land (00083.HK), Henderson Land Development (00012.HK), and Swire Properties (01972.HK) rising 2.5% to 2.6%.
Consumer stocks generally weakened with Haidilao (06862.HK), Midea Group (00300.HK), Nongfu Spring (09633.HK), China Feihe (06186.HK), Anta Sports (02020.HK), and Budweiser APAC (01876.HK) falling over 2%, Yum China (09987.HK) down 3.1%, Miniso (09896.HK) and China Tourism Group Duty Free (01880.HK) falling over 5%. Casino stock Galaxy Entertainment (00027.HK) dropped 4.1%. Pharmaceutical stocks Wuxi AppTec (02359.HK), Wuxi Biologics (02269.HK), Kangji Medical (00867.HK), and Pharmaron (03759.HK) fell 2.5% to 3.5%.
Chinese financial stocks rose, with brokerage firm GF Securities (01776.HK) up 2.8%. Mainland insurance companies Ping An Insurance (01339.HK) and China Taiping Insurance (00966.HK) rose 4.8% and 3.1%. Mainland banking stocks, including China Merchants Bank (03968.HK), Bank of Communications (03328.HK), and Postal Savings Bank of China (01658.HK) rose 2.3% to 3%. As for other financial stocks, HSBC (00005.HK) rose 0.1%, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (00388.HK) and AIA (01299.HK) fell 0.1% and 0.7%.
In the technology sector, Meituan (03690.HK) and Bilibili (09626.HK) rose over 1%, Tencent (00700.HK) fell 0.3%, Alibaba (09988.HK), Xiaomi (01810.HK), and Baidu (09888.HK) fell 0.9% to 1.3%, Kuaishou (01024.HK) and JD.com (09618.HK) fell 2.3% and 3.1%. In addition, East Money Information (01797.HK) and Tencent Music (01698.HK) rose 5.6%, Antengene Corporation (02382.HK), JD Health (06618.HK), and Kingsoft (00354.HK) fell 3.9% to 4.8%. EV stocks NIO (09863.HK) and XPeng (09868.HK) fell 2.8% and 3.3%.
Gold prices rose, with Zhaojin Mining (01818.HK) and Shandong Gold Mining (01787.HK) up 5% and 4.7%, Zijin Mining (02899.HK) rose 2.3%. In the metal sector, China Hongqiao (01378.HK) and Aluminum Corporation of China (02600.HK) rose 4.7% and 2.8%.