HK Stocks Plunge On Tech Slump

Tech shares continued to slide on Thursday, dragging the Hong Kong benchmark down for an eighth day, as investors got more jittery over a widening tech crackdown on the mainland.

The Hang Seng Index opened 79 points lower and came under heavy selling, plummeting as many as 850 points at one stage. The benchmark finished down 807 points, or 2.9 percent, at 27,110, on turnover of HK$205.25 billion.

More than 2,000 points have been shaved off the blue-chip index over eight days.

The Hang Seng Tech Index wrapped up the day off 3.7 percent.

Meituan plunged 6.4 percent. Alibaba sank about four percent. Tencent declined 3.7 percent. Xiaomi lost 1.2 percent.

The worst performer on the benchmark was Haidilao, which slid almost seven percent.

New World Development retreated nearly four percent, after the company announced that it has to demolish two towers under construction at a popular residential complex, over failed concrete strength tests.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite Index trimmed 0.8 percent and the CSI300 index shed one percent, dragged by financial and energy stocks. The Shenzhen Composite edged down 0.5 percent.

Around the region, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.9 percent. South Korea and Singapore each dropped about one percent. But Sydney and Taiwan inched up slightly.