The Annual Shale Gas Technology & Equipment Event
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Hong Kong shares fell for a second straight day on Friday, dragging benchmark indices into the red for the week as disappointing global manufacturing data battered many, particularly Chinese oil majors.
Turnover neared this year's lows after surveys on Thursday showed business activity across the euro zone shrank for a fifth straight month in June and Chinese manufacturing contracted, while weaker overseas demand slowed U.S. factory growth.
Consumer goods exporter Li & Fung, a barometer of global growth sentiment, slumped 5.5 percent to close at its lowest since June 8.
The Hang Seng Index ended down 1.4 percent at 18,995.1. It shed 1.2 percent for the week after twice failing at get above chart resistance at its 200-day moving average, currently at about 19,582.
Near-term support is seen at the 50 percent Fibonacci retracement of its rise from October lows to February highs at about 18,963.
The China Enterprises Index of the top Chinese listings in Hong Kong shed 1.7 percent and lost 2.5 percent this. Mainland Chinese markets were closed for a public holiday.
"If you give me $1 million, I won't put more than half of that into the market right now and even what I do put in will be for the short term," said Larry Jiang, chief strategist at Guotai Junan International Securities in Hong Kong.
"Valuations are supportive but people are just not willing to pay a higher multiple to own stocks," he added.
The Hang Seng Index is currently trading at 9.1 times forward 12-month earnings, the lowest since September 2011 and 12 percent below the year's high at 10.4 times seen in March.
In a note to clients dated June 21, Goldman Sachs strategists said the interest rate cut China made in early June - its first since 2008 - suggests that policy easing has moved from "ambiguous to explicit."
"Should global macro start to normalize, offshore China equities should start to close the performance gap versus onshore equities," they said in the same note, favouring H-shares, particularly the infrastructure sector.
The CSI300 Index which tracks large cap listings in Shanghai and Shenzhen, is up 7.1 percent this year. The China Enterprises Index is down 4.4 percent.
OIL FIRMS SHED MARKET CAP
On Friday, Chinese oil majors extended losses, tracking the downward spiral in global oil prices that took Brent crude oil below $90 a barrel for the first time in 18 months on Thursday.
Shares of CNOOC Ltd slumped 4 percent, shaving $3.1 billion off its market capitalisation, while PetroChina Ltd shed 2.7 percent to cut $7.5 billion off its total value. For the week, CNOOC lost 5.5 percent and PetroChina fell 3.2 percent.
Chinese property developer Evergrande was up 2 percent at midday but then reversed to close down 3.5 percent, taking its losing streak to four days. On Thursday, it tumbled 11 percent after a short seller alleged, in a research report, that the company was insolvent.
China's second-largest developer by sales on Friday it may take legal action against the short seller, which accused it of fraud, bribery and financial irregularity. Evergrande denied the allegations and also said it might buy back some of its shares.
Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's second-largest PC maker, lost 1.3 percent. The company said it hadn't offered new guidance on its growth predictions, a day after a Taiwan newspaper report that the firm had halved its growth forecasts sent the share price sharply down.
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