HK Shares Head South On Renewed Regulatory Concerns

The Hang Seng Index took a beating on the last trading day of the month, as positive sentiment from mainland authorities' assurances over recent regulatory actions subsided.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index started the day more than 200 points lower, before sinking as many as 678 points.

It clawed back some of the losses in the afternoon, but still finished 354 points, or 1.4 percent, lower at 25,961, on turnover of HK$189.6 billion.

The blue-chip index lost 5 percent for the week and slid 9.9 percent in July.

Mainland property firms were among the index’s worst performers, on renewed fears over Beijing's recent crackdown on the sector – including the raising the benchmark mortgage rates in Shanghai.

Longfor Group plunged 7.5 percent, China Resources Land declined 6.8 percent, and Country Garden lost 6.4 percent.

Tech shares gave up part of their gains from a rebound in the previous session. Meituan slumped 5.9 percent, Alibaba retreated 4.2 percent, Tencent gave up 2.6 percent, and Xiaomi shed 2.1 percent.

But mainland pork producer WH Group bucked the trend to rise 3.7 percent to become the day's biggest blue-chip winner.

In the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index skidded 0.4 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index lost 0.8 percent. The Shenzhen Composite edged up less than 0.1 percent.

Taiwan slipped 0.9 percent.

Japan's Nikkei plunged 1.8 percent – the biggest single-day drop for the index in a month as the country saw a surge in coronavirus cases. The Kospi in South Korea fell 1.2 percent, Australia shed 0.3 percent, and Singapore was flat.