Hong Kong Stocks sink on soft China economic data

Headline shares of the Hong Kong financial market declined on Friday, 14 December 2018, as investors moved to secure gains following the lackluster cues from Wall Street overnight amid skepticism about a U.S.-China trade deal and weaker than expected economic data from China. In afternoon trades, the Hang Seng Index declined 398.64 points or 1.5% to 26,125.71. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 168.42 points or 1.6% to 10,388.43.

Trade sentiment soured after China's industrial output and retail sales growth for the month of November missed expectations, reinforcing worries about a slowdown in the world's second largest economy amid trade tensions with the U.S. China's retail sales grew at the weakest pace since 2003, while industrial output grew at its slowest pace in nearly three years.

Market participants remained somewhat skeptical the U.S. and China will manage to reach a long-term trade agreement amid ongoing disputes over intellectual property and other key issues. On Thursday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Bloomberg TV that China will need to do more than what it has promised so far to ease trade tensions.

Also, risk sentiments were muted after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi flagged "persistence of uncertainties" related to protectionism, emerging markets' vulnerability and market volatility, as the bank ended its crisis-fighting bond purchase programme.

Among blue-chip stocks, HSBC (00005) fell 1.457% to HK$64.25. Tencent (00700) decreased 2.197% to HK$311.6. HKEX (00388) sank 0.598% to HK$232.8. Ping An (02318) fell 1.198% to HK$74.25. CCB (00939) dipped 1.524% to HK$6.46. China Mobile (00941) sank 3.163% to HK$75.

NEWS FROM PRESS: WLS Holdings (08021) interim loss narrows 75% -- WLS Holdings (08021) posted 75% decline in net loss to HK$22.52 million for the six months ended October 2018. The revenue was HK$83.93 million, a year-on-year increase of 18.57%. The gross profit was HK$25.55 million, a year-on-year increase of 4.49%.

Sino Gas Holdings (01759) kicks off IPO for HK$134m -- Sino Gas Holdings Group Limited (01759), an integrated LPG and natural gas supplier in the PRC, said it intends to offer a total of 54 million shares through the global offering, including 48.6 million international placing shares (subject to reallocation and the over-allotment option) and 5.4 million Hong Kong public offer shares (subject to reallocation). The indicative range of the offer price is HK$2.8 to HK$3.4 per share. Assuming an offer price of HK$3.1 per share, being the mid-point of the indicative offer price range, net proceeds from the global offering are estimated to be HK$134.3 million.

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