Hong Kong stocks led losses in a negative Asia-Pacific session on Monday amid unrest in China over its continued zero-Covid policy. Oil futures hovered around new 2022 lows as demand concerns from the world’s second-largest consumer of oil weighed on prices.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 1.63% in the final hour of trade, paring some of the losses after shedding 4% at the open. The Hang Seng Tech index fell 2.07%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.75% to 3,078.55 and the Shenzhen Component also fell 0.69% to 10,829.08.
The offshore yuan weakened sharply against the dollar after ending last week around 7.20 per dollar. Futures of West Texas Intermediate
crude, the U.S. benchmark for oil, dipped around 3% to the lowest levels since Dec. 2021.
The People’s Bank of China over the weekend announced to cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 25 basis points to 7.8% and inject around 500 billion yuan in long-term liquidity. The National Bureau of Statistics said industrial profits fell 3% for the first 10 months of the year on an annualized basis.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.42% to 7,229.10 as retail sales slipped 0.2% in October from the month before. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.42% to 28,162.83, and the Topix lost 0.68% to 2,004.31. The Kospi in South Korea declined 1.21% to 2,408.27.
