Hong Kong stock market hurtles up and down

Hong Kong's stock market had a rollercoaster ride yesterday before ending higher as blue-chip shares like HSBC (0005) and China Mobile (0941) failed to sustain their momentum, though new economy shares advanced.

The Hang Seng Index surged 220 points and topped the 25,000 point level in morning trading as Fed officials said interest rate hikes will be slower than expected but then traded 180 points lower at noon before closing 94 points higher.

Shares of HSBC (0005) slid 0.93 percent despite a Bloomberg report that it is building its business of financing hedge funds and family offices, as Europe's largest lender looks to boost growth at its Asian wealth division. The British lender said its board of directors will have a meeting on February 22 to consider the announcement of the final results for last year, as well as the payment of a second interim dividend for 2021 on ordinary shares.

The Hang Seng Tech Index advanced 0.56 percent, fueled by a 2.86 percent gain of Alibaba (9988). Meituan (3690) rose 1.66 percent and Tencent (0700) inched up 0.33 percent.

Shares of WuXi Biologics (2269) continued to tumble as it fell 5.36 percent to HK$58.3 after Daiwa Securities slashed the target price for the firm by 55 percent to HK$75, due to the uncertainty caused by its inclusion to the US unverified list.

This came as Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester said that the US Federal Reserve may not be necessary to start the liftoff in interest rates with a half-percentage-point hike in March, though it will have to move faster than it has in the past to remove accommodation and tame inflation.