Hong Kong Stocks Slip Ahead Of Key US Job Data

Hong Kong shares finished on a negative note on Thursday following a healthy rally, with investors taking profits while also nervously awaiting key US jobless claims data later in the day.

The Hang Seng Index slipped 0.7 percent, to close at 23,352.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.6 percent, to 2,764 while the Shenzhen Composite Index eased 0.8 percent, to 1,701.

Asian markets mostly rose though major indexes struggled after posting hefty gains this week.

Tokyo ended down 4.5 percent after surging almost a fifth over the previous three days.

But Sydney jumped more than 2 percent, Wellington and Mumbai climbed 4 percent, Manila rallied more than 7 percent and Jakarta soared almost 10 percent.

There were also healthy gains in Taipei and Bangkok.

Singapore also bounced back into positive territory, having earlier lost more than 2 percent.

Data in the morning showed the city-state's economy suffered its worst quarterly contraction since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, giving global investors an early insight into the economic effects of the pandemic.

Investors are now nervously awaiting the release later on Thursday of US jobless claims data, which is expected to show a massive rise.

"The high-frequency data will confirm we're in a horrible vortex of the fastest and most substantial rise in the US unemployment in modern financial history," said AxiCorp's Stephen Innes.

And CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said the figures "could well be extremely ugly" and warned some estimates had put them at around the four million mark. (AFP)