Energy and consumer stocks drag Hong Kong market Australian bourse on slippery slope

The Hong Kong market was flat in mid-day trade, dragged by energy and consumer stocks. Technology and banking sectors were strong, but did not provide enough pull to lift the market higher.

Chinese banks were mostly lower, weight down by market speculations that the Chinese Central Bank might look into another tightening of bank deposit rate again. Hong Kong local banks HSBC and Hang Seng Bank rose 1.56% and 2% respectively and provided some support to the Hong Kong Index.

Commodity related stocks were also out of investor favour due to weakness in commodity prices. Gold producer Zijing Mining (2899.HK) and Real Gold Mining (0246.HK) fell more than 2% during the early trading session.

The Singapore stock market recovered its early losses and managed to close flat at mid-day. Commodity suppliers dropped with Noble Group and Olam International Ltd, losing 0.88% and 0.61% respectively.

Capital Land, the local developer, rose over 1% after the company announced possible listing in China. Local logistic company, Global Logistic Property gained 0.93% after the company released agreement to buy a stake at Airport City Development to gain access to second tier Chinese cities.

It feels like a slippery slope for the Australian share market today as it continued to slide down from the open of trade. We saw some big sell-off in commodities overnight – including gold, which lost about $20 and copper, which has been having a good run the past few weeks, also lost some ground.

Given the good run among the local miners and resources companies, this fall in commodities prices put the local market in a bit of an unsteady ground today.

Traders and investors are still on holiday mode this week, and given the low volumes, any single sell-off could trigger a massive fall in the market. And this is what we saw in local trading today.

However, there could also be a bit of profit taking. I don’t think this is panic selling at all. I think investors may see this as a buying opportunity — to get into value buys on any pullback.