(5 Apr 2000) English/Nat
The Hong Kong Stock Market was volatile on Wednesday, mirroring the instability in the U-S markets.
Early Wednesday morning stocks on the benchmark Hang Seng Index were down almost five percent.
Technology companies that are not included in the index also suffered.
Hongkong.com plunged 18% to HK$1.54 and Tom.com was down 13% to HK$7.85.
Hong Kong's troubles follow one of the most turbulent days ever for the American stock market.
On Tuesday both the Dow Jones and the technology-linked Nasdaq were down 500 points.
The plunge was set off by a court ruling against the computer giant Microsoft.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well clearly, I think we're seeing a follow-on from what we saw on the Nasdaq market yesterday in the US. We were down 4 or 5 per cent at the early part of the morning, but we're back at down only 2 per cent right now, just before close of morning trading, so we've seen a bit of recovery in the market, just as we saw on Nasdaq. The real focus on the sell side here really is as we expect with a lot of the technology stocks, and most particularly with internet-related stocks - a lot of these companies are down anything from twelve to twenty-five per cent this morning. But what's actually holding up quite well are some of the old economy stocks such as Wharf, Swire, Hongkong Bank, and the electric companies and so on, these stocks are fact up on the day so far. So it's very much focussed on the dot coms and mobile telephone operators at this stage".
SUPER CAPTION: Peter Churchouse, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Asia
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