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Hong Kong, a British colony from the 1840s to 1997, grew into an international finance center just off the coast of mainland China.
Anthony Kwan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hong Kong stocks extended declines Thursday, while mainland China shares languished near five-year lows hit in the previous session.
The CSI 300 index opened 0.4% lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.3%. Miners led sectoral falls on both the indexes.
This comes a day after data showed China’s economy expanded by 5.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023, missing Reuters poll estimates of 5.3% growth.
Separately, local media reported Singapore’s transport minister S Iswaran was charged with corruption after a months long probe by authorities.
Australian markets extended their losses to a fifth straight day, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 0.74%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded, up 0.22%, while the Topix rose 0.08%.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.48% and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.69%.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recording a third straight day of losses.
The 30-stock Dow declined 0.25%, while the S&P 500 slid 0.56% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.59%.
Retail sales data for December came in stronger than expected, indicating a resilient consumer demand and putting aggressive rate cuts from the Federal Reserve into doubt.
Retail sales were up 0.6% from November, and gained 0.4% month over month, excluding autos. Economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated a 0.4% month-on-month increase in retail sales and 0.2% ex-autos.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report
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