Hong Kong, a British colony from the 1840s to 1997, grew into an international finance center just off the coast of mainland China.
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Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher Friday, with China stocks rising for the ninth straight session as investors digested property prices data.
The CSI 300 index ended 0.09% higher at 3,489.74, extending its winning streak for nine days in a row. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.13% lower in volatile trading.
Data showed sales prices of newly built commercial housing in first-tier cities fell 0.3% month-over-month in January, with declines narrowing by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
At the end of last year, the country’s troubled property market clocked its worst declines in new home prices in nearly nine years.
South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.13% higher at 2,667.70, while the smaller-cap Kosdaq closed 0.18% lower at 868.57.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.43% higher at 7,643.60.
Japan stocks were closed for trading on Friday for the Emperor’s Birthday holiday. Japan markets led gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 closing at a new all-time high of 39,098.68, surpassing the previous record of 38,915.87 set in 1989.
Wall Street’s main indexes surged on Thursday, with the S&P 500 hitting a record high after chip giant Nvidia posted quarterly results that far exceeded estimates, boosting the tech sector.
The benchmark index gained 2.11% to close at 5,087.03, its best day since January 2023. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.96%, recording its best day since February 2023, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.18%, to close above 39,000 for the first time and at a new high of 39,069.11.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Yun Li contributed to this report.
Carmaker Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group advanced 4.4 per cent to HK$0.239 at in Hong Kong on Tuesday, while Evergrande Property Services jumped as much as 9 per cent before losing 3.8 per cent at HK$0.375. The stock lost 18 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively on Monday.
Trading in China Evergrande Group remained suspended after the stock sank 21 per cent on Monday, the company said in an exchange filing.
The High Court in Hong Kong ordered the Chinese developer to be wound up at a hearing, after it failed to repay a creditor and show progress to reorganise its debt. Eddie Middleton and Tiffany Wong from Alvarez & Marsal have been appointed as joint liquidators to take control of its operations.
The liquidation effectively killed the debt restructuring scheme agreed with a group of creditors in March last year, which included issuing new debt instruments that could be converted into shares in the two subsidiaries. This would have eliminated the risk of stock dilution to minority shareholders, analysts said.
Why offshore creditors will remain nervous about Evergrande liquidation
Why offshore creditors will remain nervous about Evergrande liquidation
“It’s possible that minority shareholders of the two subsidiaries will not see further value dilution if convertible bonds are no longer issued,” said Jeff Zhang, an analyst at Morningstar. “However, Evergrande may still pursue restructuring following the liquidation order, so risk remains if similar options are offered to creditors.”
China Evergrande owns 58.6 per cent of the NEV unit and 51.7 per cent of the property management unit, according to its most-recent debt workout plan with offshore creditors.
The demise of China Evergrande has erased as much as HK$1.12 trillion (US$143 billion) of market value after they plunged from their all-time highs, including HK$392 billion in the flagship founded in 1996 by former chairman Hui Ka-yan in Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province.
“Liquidation or debt restructuring for any developer could be complex, and visibility remains low on the compensation that offshore creditors eventually receive,” Zhang said.