Hong Kong stocks close at 3-month low as trade woes weigh

HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks on Friday touched their lowest close in more than three months as Sino-US tensions heightened after Washington hit Chinese telecoms giant Huawei with sanctions, further straining trade ties.

At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 1.2 per cent at 27,946.46 points. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index closed 1.1 per cent lower.

The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares ended down 1.1 per cent, while the IT sector closed 2.2 per cent weaker, the financial sector ended 0.9 per cent lower and the property sector closed 1.5 per cent down.

Trade tensions worsened this week after the Trump administration officially added China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to a trade blacklist, immediately enacting restrictions that will make it extremely difficult for the telecoms giant to do business with US companies.

An index representing IT hardware makers shed 4.4 per cent to its lowest level since January 29.

Chinese media is toughening its rhetoric in the trade war with the United States, evoking patriotism and past wars to rally support at home.

The yuan curbed some of its losses after Reuters reported the People's Bank of China will not let the currency slip past the widely watched 7 per dollar handle. The offshore yuan hit its lowest since Nov. 30, 2018, earlier.

The top gainer on the Hang Seng was China Mobile Ltd , which closed 1.8 per cent higher, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, which ended 10.4 per cent lower.

China's main Shanghai Composite index and the blue-chip CSI300 index both closed 2.5 per cent lower, registering weekly losses for the fourth straight week.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.8 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed 0.9 per cent firmer.

About 1.98 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.45 billion.

At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 23.49 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was higher by 1.1 per cent on the day at 4,916.73 points.