Hong Kong Market slips on doubts over coronavirus drug

The Hong Kong stock market finished session lower on Friday, 24 April 2020, as investor sentiment was dampened on following a soft lead from Wall Street overnight after doubts about progress in the development of drugs to treat COVID-19 and new evidence of U.S. economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. At closing bell, the benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 0.61%, or 146 points, to 23,831.33. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 0.5%, or 47.80 points, to 9,656.19. The Hang Seng Index finished with a weekly loss of 2.3%.

Risk sentiment deteriorated after a news report, citing inadvertently released results, said the closely watched antiviral drug remdesivir had had no effect on patients in its first randomised clinical test.

Hong Kong recorded no new Covid-19 infections today, the second time in a week.This marks the 13th day in a row where daily cases did not rise above single figures. Hong Kong's tally stands at 1,035 cases and four deaths.

The market shrugged off a cut by the PBOC to targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF) rates earlier in the session, following similar reductions to borrowing costs on other liquidity tools in the past few weeks to support the economy.

Among blue chips, Tencent (700 HK) slid 1.3% to HK$406.40. Ping An Insurance (2318 HK), which reported a 43% fall in first-quarter net profit, slipped 1% to HK$77.30. Ali Health (241) plunged 6.4% to HK$18.34. Alibaba (9988 HK) tumbled 3.1% to HK$198.

Chinese cancer drugs developer Akeso (9926 HK), which made its trading debut today, soared 50.2% to HK$24.30.

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