HK Erases Early Gains To Underperform In Region

Shares in Hong Kong gave up gains from positive signs over Sino-US tensions on Thursday, as heavyweight HSBC dragged the local benchmark to close flat.

The Hang Seng Index opened higher and jumped as many as 211 points at one stage, after US President Joe Biden withdrew executive orders made by his predecessor Donald Trump barring new downloads of Wechat and TikTok.

But it dipped into negative territory in the afternoon before paring the losses to finish down three points at 28,738.

Market turnover was HK$134 billion.

HSBC tumbled 1.7 percent, after Moody's downgraded its senior unsecured debt rating.

Mainland hotpot chain Haidilao sank 2.8 percent to become the day's biggest blue-chip loser.

Tech performance was mixed. Tencent shed 0.4 percent despite the White House's move to revoke the ban on new downloads for its Wechat messaging app. Alibaba inched down 0.2 percent. But Meituan jumped 1.6 percent. Xiaomi put on 0.9 percent.

The top performer on the benchmark was BYD Company, which soared 6.4 percent.

Markets across the border edged higher. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index added 0.7 percent. The Shenzhen Composite advanced 1.1 percent.

Around the region, Japan's Nikkei and the Kospi in South Korea both rose about 0.3 percent. Australian shares gained 0.4 percent. Taiwan rallied 1.1 percent. Singapore was also higher.