Hong Kong shares fall as regulatory clampdown hits tech firms

** Shares in Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech giants were battered after a Shanghai court on the weekend posted a list of "typical unfair competition cases" involving companies including Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba's Alipay on its official WeChat account.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index fell on Monday as fresh investor concerns over a regulatory clampdown hobbled shares of China's tech giants, and as global concerns over inflation and a surge in coronavirus cases hit investor sentiment. ** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 514.90 points, or 1.84%, at 27,489.78. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 1.91% to 9,958.56. ** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 1.1%, while the IT sector dropped 3.08%, the financial sector ended 1.69% lower and the property sector declined 1.17%. ** Shares in Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech giants were battered after a Shanghai court on the weekend posted a list of "typical unfair competition cases" involving companies including Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba's Alipay on its official WeChat account. ** Tencent Holdings Ltd slipped 2.57%, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd dropped 3.25% and Baidu Inc slumped 3.79%. Meituan was the biggest loser on the Hang Seng, falling 5.02%. ** China Evergrande Group shares posted their biggest daily drop since Oct. 14, 2020, falling 16.2% after an adverse court ruling earlier this month came to light. ** Evergrande said it is planning to sue a unit of China Guangfa Bank after the lender had a loan to its project company frozen. ** China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.01% at 3,539.12 points, while the blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.37%. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 1.39%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 1.25%. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.4825 per U.S. dollar at 0813 GMT, 0.06% weaker than the previous close of 6.4786.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)