Ouch !!! HK's Hang Seng extends losses, off 8 pct at noon
HONG KONG, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (^HSI - news) extended losses late on Wednesday morning, falling 8.02 percent or 1,368 points to 15,694 by noon as brokerage houses forced margin clients to sell stocks or cover their borrowings.
The blue chip benchmark index then recovered slightly to trade 7.7 percent down at 15,752.
'People are selling aggressively since many of them still have good gains at these levels,' said Alan Pau, associate director at South China Securities.
Since its rally started on October 21, the Hang Seng Index had risen more than 43 percent to an all-time high of 17,426.16 set on Monday.
Margin calls accelerated the morning fall, Pau said.
Futures <0#HSI:> were trading at a discount to the cash market, with the January contract down 1,270 points at 15,730. |
