"Hong Kong Stocks" The Hang Seng Index "closes" with a half-day market drop of 224 points, Zijin Mining breaks the top in reverse, and China Unicom experiences six consecutive declines

The Hong Kong stock market today (31st) "closed" for the half-day session on New Year's Eve. The Hang Seng Index opened 53 points lower this morning, and the decline widened, dropping as much as 300 points to a low of 25,554 points, closing down 224 points or nearly 0.9%, at 25,630 points. The National Index closed down 77 points or nearly 0.9%, at 8,913 points. The Hang Seng Tech Index closed down 62 points or 1.1%, at 5,515 points. The total market turnover was HKD 119.666 billion.

The Hang Seng Index fell a total of 228 points or 0.9% in December; it fell a total of 1,225 points or 4.6% for the entire quarter; the Hang Seng Index rose a total of 5,570 points or 27.8% for the entire year, marking its best performance in eight years.

Some resource stocks were favored against the trend. Zijin Mining (02899.HK) issued a profit warning, expecting to earn about 59% to 62% more for the entire year, reaching a historical high of HKD 36.98 during the session, closing up 0.8% at HKD 35.66, with a turnover of HKD 2.345 billion. Jiangxi Copper (00358.HK) rose as much as 9.6% to a historical high of HKD 44.62 during the session, closing up 5.4% at HKD 42.88, with a turnover of HKD 1.287 billion. Minmetals Resources (01208.HK) also rose 1.7%. The newly listed aluminum oxide and electrolytic aluminum manufacturer Innovation Industry (02788.HK) rose 7.5%.

Major financial stocks were generally weak, with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (00388.HK) and HSBC (00005.HK) slightly down 0.2% to 0.5%, and AIA (01299.HK) and China Life (02628.HK) down 2% to 2.1%.

Weighted technology stocks were generally weak, with NetEase (09999.HK), Trip.com-S (09961.HK), New Oriental-S (09901.HK), JD.com-SW (09618.HK), Alibaba-W (09988.HK), and Meituan-W (03690.HK) down nearly 1% to 3.2%. Kuaishou-W (01024.HK) fell 0.9%, while Xiaomi-W (01810.HK) and Tencent (00700.HK) each slightly fell nearly 0.2%. Baidu-SW (09888.HK) rose against the trend by 1.4%, closing at HKD 131.5, making it the best-performing blue-chip stock.

Pharmaceutical stocks generally declined, with Innovent Biologics (01801.HK) down 3.7%, the largest decline among blue-chip stocks. WuXi Biologics (02269.HK), China National Pharmaceutical Group (01177.HK), and WuXi AppTec (02359.HK) fell between 1.2% and 1.9%.

In the chip sector, SMIC (00981.HK) and Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347.HK) each closed down over 1%.

Major automotive stocks showed mixed results, with Changan Automobile (02333.HK) closing up over 3%, BYD (01211.HK) down 2.3%, and Li Auto-W (02015.HK) down 1.4%. Geely (00175.HK) slightly fell 0.7% The "three telecom giants" were weak, with China Mobile (00941.HK) and China Telecom (00728.HK) falling by 0.5% to 0.7%. China Unicom (00762.HK) has declined for six consecutive days, dropping 1.4% to close at HKD 7.78, marking a low not seen in over ten months