Hong Kong stocks sink as mainland China economic data, earnings reports trigger sell-off

The Hang Seng Index fell 1.2 per cent to 25,215.10 at the noon break, extending a 0.4 per cent decline on Thursday. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 1.1 per cent.

On the mainland, the yield on the 10-year government bond declined by one basis point to 1.728 per cent. The CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both gained 0.5 per cent.

China’s key economic data for July, released on Friday, missed analysts’ estimates, as the effect of trade-in programmes for household appliances wore off, the woes of the property market continued and some emerging industries were mired in overcapacity.

Industrial production rose by 5.7 per cent from a year earlier in July, while retail sales grew by 3.7 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The numbers fell short of the estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who expected increases of 6.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively. Expansion in fixed-asset investment in the first seven months of the year slowed to 1.6 per cent, versus the projection of 2.7 per cent growth.

A separate report released earlier also showed that a decline in property prices extended into July.