Hong Kong Market falls on concerns over Covid-19 crisis, US-China trade spat

Headline indices of the Hong Kong stock market finished session lower on Monday, 21 December 2020, as selling on concerns over frictions between the US and China trade spat and rising COVID-19 infections in Britain and parts of North Asia. However, market losses capped amid positive news of U.S. lawmakers accomplishment of an agreement on further stimulus measures to underpin the pandemic-hit economy.

At closing bell, the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.72%, or 191.92 points, to 26,306.68. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 0.78%, or 81.51 points, to 10,401.83.

Several European countries closed their borders to the UK as the country entered a tougher lockdown to fight a new strain of coronavirus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel and the flow of freight in and out of Britain.

The coronavirus situation in parts of North Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, remained severe and could have weighed on investor sentiment. As per reports, new coronavirus cases in South Korea hit a fresh record high on Sunday, meanwhile in Japan, the country's capital Tokyo saw its monthly tally of new coronavirus cases topping 10,000 for the first time on Sunday.

President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which empowers regulators to remove Chinese companies from US stock exchanges if they fail to comply with auditing oversight rules within three years. The Trump administration also added 60 Chinese companies, including SMIC and closely held drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology, to the Department of Commerce's so-called entity list. Beijing has condemned the US move and threatened to impose countermeasures.

In the United States, Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said an agreement had been reached by congressional leaders on a roughly $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill.

Still, there have been positive developments on the coronavirus vaccine front, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use. That makes it the second vaccine approved in the U.S., following Pfizer and BioNTech's.

Telecommunications firms led losses in Hong Kong. China Unicom fell 3.3% and China Mobile shed 2.9%, while chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) declined 3.3% in Hong Kong and 1.2% in Shanghai.

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