Hong Kong stocks open in red, Nio down 2%

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Hong Kong stocks open in red, Nio down 2%

Hong Kong stocks opened in the red on Friday with the benchmark Hang Seng losing over 1% in opening trade as market focus shifted to increasing COVID 19 cases in China, which reported a record high number of infections on Thursday.

Meituan's shares lost close to 3%, while the stocks of Alibaba and Nio declined more than 2% in morning trade.

Macro News: China reported a record number of COVID 19 infections on Thursday, with lockdowns, mass testing and other restrictions in place.

Since 2021, China s economy has been impacted by new coronaviruses every six months or so. The full-year GDP growth is projected to be at 3.0% in the current situation, according to ANZ Research.

China has indicated that more monetary incentives are on the cards, including a possible cut to the reserve requirement ratio for banks, as it looks to boost its economy, according to Bloomberg.

The China Evergrande Group EGRNF is in talks with a Chinese municipal district in Wuhan City that had 134,500 hectares of land previously held by a unit of the group, reported Reuters.

NIO has begun the delivery of its ET 7 model in Denmark after the flagship sedan was delivered to consumers in Sweden last week, according to CnEVPost.

Longfor Group Holdings Limited and China Resources Land Limited are among the top gainers among Hang Seng constituents, having gone up over 2% each. WuXi Biologics Cayman Inc. and Henderson Land Development Company Limited are among the top losers, having declined over 1% each.

On Friday morning, the U.S. futures traded in the green. Nasdaq futures rose 0.39%, while Dow Jones futures were up 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were trading higher by 0.2%.

Australia's ASX 200 was up 0.24% in Asia Pacific. Japan's Nikkei 225 traded 0.14% lower, while China's Shanghai Composite index lost 0.1%. South Korea's Kospi declined by 0.07%.

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