Hong Kong stocks cap 6-day slide despite China data on retail sales, home prices

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Retail sales growth of 4.8 per cent and a slower decline in home prices were not enough to raise investors’ spirits

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People walk in a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing on November 14, 2024. Photo: AP

Zhang Shidongin Shanghai

Published: 10:29am, 15 Nov 2024Updated: 4:46pm, 15 Nov 2024

Hong Kong stocks fell, giving up all the gains spurred by a rebound in Chinese retail sales and a slower decline in home prices, on worries that the improvement in economic data would end up being a blip without more fiscal support.

The Hang Seng Index edged down 0.1 per cent to 19,426.34 at the close, reversing an advance of as much as 0.9 per cent. For the week, the benchmark dropped 6.3 per cent, the most in a month. The Hang Seng Tech Index added 0.2 per cent.

Mainland benchmarks also dropped. The CSI 300 Index slid 1.8 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.5 per cent.

Geely Automobile slumped after agreeing to buy an unprofitable Chinese electric-vehicle maker. E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding wavered before its earnings release later on Friday. Limiting losses, online game operator NetEase surged after reporting revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumption, increased by 4.8 per cent year on year last month, the fastest pace since February, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. That beat the consensus estimate of 3.8 per cent growth by economists tracked by Bloomberg. Industrial production and fixed-asset investment both missed consensus projections, however.

A separate report released earlier on Friday by the agency showed that new home prices in 70 cities fell 0.5 per cent month on month in October, the least in seven months.

The improvement in the economic data has been offset by Beijing’s failure to approve fiscal stimulus to boost consumption and the labour market at a legislative meeting last week, as well as the prospects of higher tariffs from the coming Trump administration. The Hang Seng Index has dropped 16 per cent from an October high. Stocks earlier rallied after Beijing introduced a slew of monetary easing and measures to prop up the property market, reducing mortgage rates, deed taxes and lifting home-purchase restrictions.