SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Tuesday trade as several major Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong remained under pressure following a tumble on Monday.
The broader Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 5.06% in afternoon trade, seeing further losses after a more than 4% plunge on Monday on the back of regulatory fears surrounding China’s technology and private education sector.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent fell 10.24% while Alibaba dropped 8.9% and Meituan declined 16.72%. The Hang Seng Tech index slipped 9.71%.
China’s antitrust regulator announced Monday a set of guidelines for food delivery platforms that included paying delivery personnel at least the local minimum wage — a move that could hurt the profits of firms such as Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me.
Mainland Chinese stocks also saw sizable losses on the day, with the Shanghai composite down 2.49% to 3,381.18 while the Shenzhen component dropped 3.672% to about 14,093.64. Industrial firms’ profits in China jumped 20% year-on-year in June, official data showed Tuesday. Still, that was a decline from the 36.4% year-on-year increase seen in May.
Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.49% to close at 27,970.22 while the Topix index advanced 0.64% on the day to 1,938.04. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.24% on the day to 3,232.53.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to close at 7,431.40.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.29%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.24% to 4,422.30 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 82.76 points higher to 35,144.31. The Nasdaq Composite was fractionally higher at 14,840.71. The gains left all three major indexes stateside closing at new record highs.
