Stocks in Hong Kong fell; Investors watch bitcoin volatility

On Monday, stocks in Hong Kong fell while investors observed bitcoin prices after falling sharply during the weekend. Oil prices surged during Asia trade.

As tech stocks declined, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong dropped 1.27%. JD fell more than 4%, while Tencent was below 2.69%.

In early trade, Alibaba shares in Hong Kong dropped approximately 8.5% but later increased slightly to 5.35%. The company announced Maggie Wu’s successor Toby Xu, the company’s deputy Chief Financial Officer, as Chief Financial Officer. That change will be valid at the beginning of April next year. That happened after Friday’s declines in shares of Chinese companies listed in the US. It resulted from dropping on concerns about the stricter regulatory investigation after Didi declared it would leave the New York Stock Exchange.

Four new stocks, including Chinese JD and Netease, joined the benchmark Hang Seng index. This latest update increased the number of stocks from the current 60 stocks to 64.

In the meantime, troubled Evergrande (Chinese property developer) will leave the China Enterprises Index.

Evergrande, entangled in debt problems, said that it had received a demand to return approximately $250 million. The company said that if it cannot meet its financial obligations, it might lead to creditors asking for the acceleration of repayment.

Evergrande shares fell more than 13%. However, stocks from Mainland China increased. The Shanghai Composite surged 0.38%, while the Shenzhen component increased by 0.17%.

Other Asia-Pacific markets

Japan’s Nikkei 225 cut earlier declines, dropping 0.38%, while the Topix descended 0.43%. South Korea’s Kospi increased 0.21%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 increased 0.15%, recovering from minor losses previously.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares plunged 0.46% outside Japan.

Since last week, stocks globally and in the region have experienced turbulent trading on concerns about the new omicron strain.

DBS wrote in a note that this week would be critical as some information about the Omicron strain would be available.