Hang Seng Index plunges nearly 500 points at noon on Friday

Hong Kong stocks slumped through the 27,000-point mark in the morning trading session on Friday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index tanked by nearly 500 points, or 1.8 percent, to 26,547 at noon.

The half-day market turnover was HK$128.4 billion. 

The Hang Seng Tech Index declined by 1.7 percent to 5,320 points at noon.

In the mainland, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 4,105 points and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Component Index declined by 0.7 percent to 14,187 points at the midday close.