Hong Kong Shares Extend Steep Losses

Hong Kong stocks fell 315 points or 1.4% to 23,030 in Tuesday morning trade, marking the second session of sharp losses amid broad sector falls, notably consumers and tech.Traders retreated from riskier assets after the US intensified curbs on Chinese investments and proceeded with tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

Caution also grew ahead of China’s official February PMI data over the weekend, with expectations of subdued readings due to the impact of the Lunar New Year break.

On the monetary front, the PBoC injected CNY 300 billion via a one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF), keeping the rate at 2.0%.

However, this fell short of the CNY 500 billion in MLF loans maturing in February, effectively tightening liquidity.

Alibaba Group tumbled 4.7% after its American depositary receipts slid 10% overnight.

This followed a 5.2% drop in the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index.

Other notable losses included Alibaba Health Intl. (-5.6%), China Resources Beer (-4.3%), and SenseTime Group (-3.7%).