China and Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, as elevated
Sino-U.S. geopolitical tensions dented investor sentiment after
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday accused TikTok of serving harmful
content as they pushed to ban the app.
** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index closed down
0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6%.
** Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index was down
0.7%, and the China Enterprises Index slid 0.6%.
** For the week, CSI 300 Index gained 1.7% and
the Hang Seng Index rose 2.0%.
** U.S. lawmakers on Thursday battered TikTok's chief
executive, saying the app's short videos were damaging
children's mental health, pushing further to ban the app
nationwide.
** The case of TikTok, whose parent is China-based
ByteDance, raised tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Thursday's congressional hearing came after the Biden
administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes
or face a potential ban, TikTok said last week.
** Foreign investors recorded a net selling via the Stock
Connect on Friday, after net buying for nine consecutive
sessions.
** Lingering concerns from the global banking crisis
persisted, as Hong Kong's central bank said on Friday that the
city needs to watch carefully for any further "spillover" from
U.S. regional banks, although it has very little exposure to the
situation in European and U.S. financial institutions.
** In China, shares of telecommunication services lost steam and declined 0.9%, with China United
Network Communications Ltd , China Mobile Ltd , and China Telecom Corp Ltd , down 4.7%,
2.4%, and 3.8%, respectively.
** In Hong Kong, tech stocks and consumer staples
shares rose modestly, whereas most other sectors
declined. Tech stocks were up 6.2% this week, their best
performance since early January.
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Varun H K and Sonia
Cheema)
