Hong Kong stocks extended losses to end lower on Thursday, hurt by a slump in shares of IT companies, amid rising trade war fears and as investors digested the impact of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 1.1 percent at 31,071.05, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises index
fell 0.8 percent to 12,427.55. US President Donald Trump will announce tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday, a White House official said, in a move aimed at curbing theft of US technology and likely to trigger retaliation from Beijing and stoke fears of a global trade war.
"Most Chinese corporates seem to be quite resilient against a potential trade war given the high share of domestic revenue," said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. An IT sub-index tumbled 4.2 percent, led by Tencent posting its worst day since early February.
Tencent closed down 5 percent on Thursday after the Chinese internet giant missed quarterly revenue estimates and warned that planned investments may hurt margins. A sub-index tracking consumer goods makers lost 1 percent on Thursday. Investors also pondered the impact of the Fed's rate hike on Wednesday.
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