Insurers and pharmaceutical companies pushed the Hang Seng

The main reference index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Hang Seng, closed the session with an advance of 1.11%. It was caused by the good results of the pharmaceutical companies and parquet insurance companies.

Selective Hong Kong added 308.9 points to 28,027.57. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng China Enterprises, the index that measures the mainland Chinese companies’ behavior listed on the Hong Kong stock market, grew by 0.63%.

Commerce and Industry were the only sub-indices to close in the red with a 0.03% decrease. At the same time, Real Estate increased by 0.13%. The services sector gained 0.47%, and Finance grew by 2.7%. The finance sector achieved the best results. The three insurers – AIA, China Life, and Ping An – ended the day with gains of 6.08%, 2.98%, and 2.65%, respectively.

Banking Sector was one of the main leads of the day

Banking was not far behind, with HSBC increasing by 1.88%. China Construction Bank gained 1.8%, and Bank of Communications climbed by 1.39%.

Pharmaceuticals were also protagonists, and CSPC Pharma led in percentage of profits, with a 10.64% gain. Sino Biopharm increased by 3.54%.

The state oil companies closed the week with different results. Cnooc lost 0.46%, while Petrochina lost 0.64%. Sinopec yielded 0.98%.

Digital commerce companies Meituan and Alibaba were the worst stops of the day, with losses of 3.02% and 4.13%, respectively.

The business volume of the session was 150,870 million Hong Kong dollars.

Alibaba shares slipped today

Alibaba sank after its first quarterly loss since 2012, when tech stocks lost $527 billion on February 17. The slide overshadowed a slight rebound in the broader Hong Kong market after a resilient US labor market report.

Higher commodity prices, strengthening regulations, faster US inflation, and liquidity in China has weakened investors’ confidence this week. 

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index yielded this year’s profit on Thursday.