Tech and property firms dragged Hong Kong stocks lower

** The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index plunged 4.3%, fuelled by concerns over a planned pilot real estate tax scheme. ** Mainland property firms Country Garden, China Evergrande Group, Sunac China lost between 4% and 7.4%.

Hong Kong shares finished down on Tuesday, dragged by tech and property firms. A planned pilot real-estate tax scheme continued to dent risk appetite. The Hang Seng index fell 0.4%, to 26,038.27, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.7%, to 9,259.43 points.

** The Hang Seng Tech Index lost 1.3%, index heavyweights Alibaba Group and Meituan dropped 2.6% and 1.3%, respectively. ** Alibaba Health Information Technology slumped more than 10%, the biggest decliner on the Heng Seng Index.

** Alibaba Health said it expected to record a net loss of not more than RMB320 mln ($2.04 bln) for six months ended in September, due to increase in deployment of group's resources. ** The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index plunged 4.3%, fuelled by concerns over a planned pilot real estate tax scheme.

** Mainland property firms Country Garden, China Evergrande Group, Sunac China lost between 4% and 7.4%. ** The property tax, likely to be tested initially in first- and second-tier cities, "will hurt home-buyer sentiment and discourage investment demand, and thus, deepen the physical property market downturn," brokerage CLSA wrote in a note.

** "We expect more property policy fine-tuning to offset the negative impact of the property market downturn and weak economic outlook," CLSA added. ** Modern Land has become the latest Chinese property developer to miss a bond payment, adding to worries about wider effects of the debt crisis at behemoth China Evergrande Group.

** The energy sub-index and the healthcare sub-index lost about 1% each. ** Hong Kong-listed Chinese electric vehicle makers jumped. Investor sentiment was boosted after Tesla surpassed $1 trillion in market value on Monday.

** China's Xpeng Inc led the gains, up 8.7%, after it said it would accelerate development to mass produce vehicles fitted with the latest digital technologies.

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