SINGAPORE — Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday even as other Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose, with Wall Street mostly lifted overnight supported by strong earnings. Alibaba, however, disappointed investors as it missed earnings expectations.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 1.1% in early trade, building on a broad sell-off in tech stocks during the previous session. The Hang Seng tech index was down around 1% after plunging nearly 3% on Thursday.
Alibaba shares listed in Hong Kong dropped over 9%. On Thursday, Alibaba missed revenue and earnings expectations for the September quarter, as slowing economic growth in China weighed on results. It reported revenue of 200.69 billion yuan ($31.4 billion), less than the 204.93 billion yuan estimated but still a 29% year-on-year rise. The company reported earnings per share of 11.20 yuan, less than an estimate of 12.36 yuan and a 38% year-on-year decline.
Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares fell 11.1% on Thursday.
Mainland Chinese stocks, on the other hand, rose. The Shanghai composite was up 0.22%, while the Shenzhen component jumped 0.62%.
In other Asia-Pacific markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.26%, while the Topix was flat. Investors are on the lookout for an expected announcement of a record $488 billion stimulus package in Japan later on Friday, with Reuters citing media reports.
Australia’s ASX 200 was flat after being in positive territory earlier. Shares of Crown Resorts soared more than 16% after a $6.2 billion buyout offer from investment firm Blackstone, according to Reuters.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.22%, paring some earlier gains. India’s markets are closed for a holiday on Friday.
U.S. markets were mixed overnight, although strong earnings lifted some indices. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher to 4,704.54 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to 15,993.71. The Dow fell 60 points, or 0.1%, dragged lower by big losses in Cisco shares.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.3% at one point before recovering, after strong earnings from Nvidia, the world’s largest chipmaker by market value, and various retailers. Other chipmakers also rose as Nvidia’s strong results lifted optimism for the sector.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.616 — recovering from levels above 95.5 earlier.
The Japanese yen weakened slightly, trading at 114.31 per dollar. The Australian dollar was at $0.7279, down marginally from levels around $0.728 earlier.
In the oil market, prices continued to recover from a drop to six-week lows. U.S. crude was up 0.14% to around $79.12 per barrel in the morning during Asia hours. Brent edged up 0.1% to $81.42.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
