Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, trimming a weekly gain, after a sell-off resumed on Wall Street on renewed concerns that artificial intelligence would disrupt business models across multiple industries.
The Hang Seng Index slid 2%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 16%.
In terms of star stocks, Laopu Gold fell 6%; Meituan and Baidu fell 4%; JD.com and Alibaba fell 3%; Kuaishou, Bilibili, Pop Mart, Li Auto, XPeng, and Tencent fell 2%; NetEase fell 1%.
Key US equity indexes posted their biggest declines in three weeks overnight as jitters returned over the ability of new AI models to automate workflows, potentially decimating industries from software and logistics to wealth management. The shake-up reflects that investors have started to reassess the potential fallout of AI after years of frenzied investment that fuelled valuation expansion in tech stocks.
Sell-offs also whiplashed the commodity markets, with both gold and silver slumping as traders unwound their positions to cover soured bets on equities.