HK stocks match longest losing streak since 1997

Bloomberg

Hong Kong equities are rapidly turning into a losing bet as economic woes and escalating street protests hammer sentiment.
The MSCI Hong Kong Index closed down 3.2 percent on Monday in a ninth day of declines, matching the longest streak since the 1997 handover. Landlords and retail stocks once again bore the brunt of the selling as protesters sought to shut down the city with a general strike. The sinking Chinese currency isn’t helping either, with its plunge past 7 per dollar escalating concerns about the US-China trade war.
Hong Kong business confidence, already strained by the trade war, faces fresh challenges as the street clashes damp spending and deter tourists. The economy contracted more than expected last quarter from the previous three months, with retail sales plunging 6.7 percent in June from a year earlier, while an IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index fell to the lowest since 2009.
“There’s so much bad news,” said Ben Kwong, executive director at KGI Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The protests are hurting economic activities in Hong Kong, there’s no progress on trade talks and the yuan just broke 7 per dollar. The selling momentum is still huge.”
The Hong Kong dollar, which is linked to the greenback, weakened as much as 0.11 percent to 7.8354 on Monday, its lowest since mid-June.
The imposition of new tariffs on Chinese goods by President Donald Trump will likely only worsen the outlook for the former British colony. Even before that move, embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she saw “no room for optimism” for the city’s economy this year as the trade war weighed on growth.
MTR Corp, which has the best risk-adjusted return of any Hang Seng Index member this year, tumbled 3.4 percent on Monday.