HONG KONG: Hong Kong and China stocks declined on Friday and registered weekly losses, as tech shares tumbled on mounting profit-taking pressure.
The Hang Seng Tech Index slid 3.4% on Friday, and Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 2.1%. Both indexes registered back-to-back weekly losses for the first time since January.
In Hong Kong, chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation slid 7.5% to a one-month low, while market heavyweight Alibaba lost 3.5%.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index dipped 1.5%, ending the week with a 2.3% loss in its largest retreat since January. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3%.
The tech sector also paced declines onshore. Mainland’s tech-focused Star 50 Index dropped 2.1% and AI-related shares slipped 3%.
“It’s normal to see some pullbacks at these levels after such a strong rally this year - this doesn’t even qualify as a correction,” said Dickie Wong, Kingston Securities executive director.
The optimism around China’s “two sessions”, DeepSeek and President Xi Jinping’s meeting with tech leaders has already been priced in with major indexes at current levels, prompting investors to take profit, he added.
The Hang Seng Tech index has lost 4.1% this week in a second week of decline - the longest losing streak since the opening weeks of the year. However, the gauge is still up 26% year-to-date.
China’s parliamentarians and political advisers gather in Beijing every March for two parallel sets of meetings called ‘Two Sessions’.
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