The Hang Seng Index was down 2% in early afternoon trading. So far this week, the index has lost more than 4%.
The top three losers on the Hang Seng were local property owners and developers. New World Development dropped the most — 5.3%. Elsewhere in the region, Nissan shares recouped most of their early losses and were last down 0.4% in Tokyo. Earlier in the day, the Japanese automaker slid as much as 4.3% after it reported poor earnings.Meanwhile, Japan's benchmark index Nikkei 225 dropped 0.9% on Wednesday.
Nissan said after Tuesday's market close that its operating profit fell 70% to 30 billion yen for the three months that ended in September, well below the estimated 47.5 billion yen from a Refinitiv poll of analysts. The automaker cut its sales forecast, expecting to sell 5.2 million cars for the fiscal year that ends in March 2020 — 5.4% less than what it initially anticipated. It also slashed the forecast of its full-year operating profit by 35%.US stock futures also retreated. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all moved more than 0.3% lower.