HSI plunged as much as 500 points on the year's first trading day

Hong Kong stocks fell on the year’s first trading day, with the Hang Seng Index opening 127 points lower and widening its loss to nearly 500 points at most.
The fall narrowed to about 290 points to 19,769 points as of 11:21 am GMT+8.

Financial stocks faced pressure, with China Construction Bank (0939), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398), Agricultural Bank Of China (1288), China Life Insurance (2628), and Ping An Insurance (2318) all dropping over 3 percent earlier. 
Meanwhile, AIA (1299) and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388) previously declined by more than 2 percent.

Automaker stocks declined after releasing December sales data. BYD (1211) fell 2.33 percent, Geely Automobile (0175) dropped 3.1 percent, XPeng (9868) slipped 1.71 percent, and Li Auto (2015) edged 0.11 percent lower.

The Tech gauge dropped nearly 2 percent earlier. Alibaba (9988) slid over 1 percent following its plan to sell out its stake in Sun Art Retail (6808), which tumbled nearly 20 percent.

Melody Chen