Hong Kong's financial markets are under renewed pressure after protesters brought the city's airport to a standstill on Monday, highlighting the economic fallout from increasingly violent protests. The airport reopened on Tuesday morning, with more than 200 flights cancelled.
"It looks like the situation will get worse," said Airy Lau, investment director at Fair Capital Management."Together with the higher global recession risk from US-China friction, the Hang Seng Index is likely to have 5-10 per cent more downside." Shares of Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's main airline, tumbled to a 10-year low Monday as China barred its employees who supported the protests from flying to the mainland. Swire Properties - which operates malls and hotels in the city - fell 5.4 per cent, taking its losses since June 10 to 24 per cent.
Mainland investors have made the most of the slump in Hong Kong-listed equities, purchasing stocks through exchange links every day this month. They bought a net US$289 million worth of the city's shares on Monday, even as onshore markets rallied. The Hong Kong dollar weakened as much as 0.02 per cent on Tuesday.about a drawn out US-China trade war, protests in Hong Kong and a crash in Argentina's peso currency. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.