After a five-day climb, Hong Kong stocks are on pause this morning, with the Hang Seng Index flat (and the Shanghai Composite Index flat too) ahead of the U.S. jobs report due after the close.
On the downside, shares of index heavyweight Tencent Holdings are seeing further losses, sliding another 4%. The Internet giant touched a record high in early March, fueled by a bullish outlook for China’s growing e-commerce and mobile markets. However, shares have retreated since then amid concerns that valuations may be too high, with Tencent sinking 12.5% over the past month.
Other tech names are sliding along Tencent, with software firm Kingsoft Corp. dropping 4.6% and NetDragon Websoft down 1.5%.
Chinese property developers also remain weak, as KWG Property Holdings falls 2.9%, Sino-Ocean Land Holdings drops 2.5%, Country Garden Holdings pulls back 1.6%, and Vanke Property gives up 1.2% despite a 24% year-on-year rise in parent China Vanke’s sales for the first quarter of 2014.
However, oil shares are outperforming, as Cnooc advances 2%, PetroChina Co. gains 1.8%, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (a.k.a. Sinopec) pushes 1.2% higher.
And China’s largest carrier of crude oil and coal — China Shipping Development — is rallying 4.9%, after it issued an optimistic earnings forecast for the first quarter of this year due to a rebound in petroleum-shipping prices.
On the downside, shares of index heavyweight Tencent Holdings are seeing further losses, sliding another 4%. The Internet giant touched a record high in early March, fueled by a bullish outlook for China’s growing e-commerce and mobile markets. However, shares have retreated since then amid concerns that valuations may be too high, with Tencent sinking 12.5% over the past month.
Other tech names are sliding along Tencent, with software firm Kingsoft Corp. dropping 4.6% and NetDragon Websoft down 1.5%.
Chinese property developers also remain weak, as KWG Property Holdings falls 2.9%, Sino-Ocean Land Holdings drops 2.5%, Country Garden Holdings pulls back 1.6%, and Vanke Property gives up 1.2% despite a 24% year-on-year rise in parent China Vanke’s sales for the first quarter of 2014.
However, oil shares are outperforming, as Cnooc advances 2%, PetroChina Co. gains 1.8%, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (a.k.a. Sinopec) pushes 1.2% higher.
And China’s largest carrier of crude oil and coal — China Shipping Development — is rallying 4.9%, after it issued an optimistic earnings forecast for the first quarter of this year due to a rebound in petroleum-shipping prices.