Virus Concerns Weigh Down Local Market

Hong Kong shares finished Tuesday with losses while regional shares were mixed as rising coronavirus cases hit investor sentiment.

The Hang Seng index was under pressure all day. It opened and saw its losses widen during trading.

The index closed down 202 points, or 0.8 percent, at 26,304.

Turnover was HK$135.4 billion.

Losses in financial firms pulled down the market. HSBC gave up 3.6 percent and AIA lost 1 percent.

The worst performer on the blue-chip index was Sinopec, which dived 4.8 percent. Another mainland oil firm, CNOOC, dipped 3.9 percent.

But Xiaomi bucked the trend and gained 4.8 percent to become the blue-chip winner. Sunny Optical rose more than 4 percent.

Markets across the border struggled as well. The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.2 percent while the blue-chip CSI300 index shed a quarter of a percent. The Shenzhen Composite was little changed.

Around the region, the Nikkei in Japan gave up 0.3 percent. Seoul’s Kospi snapped a five-day winning streak and slumped 1.6 percent. But Taiwan added 0.7 percent to log a third consecutive day of gains to reach another record high. Australia put on 0.2 percent.