ASIA MARKETS: Hong Kong Stocks Fall On U.S. Losses, China Growth Concerns

By Laura He, MarketWatch

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks tumbled on Wednesday amid declines on Wall Street overnight and worries about Chinese economy triggered by Premier Li's comments.

The Hang Seng Index ended 1.9% lower, as trading resumed after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday that China's M2, a broad measure of money supply, expanded 12.8% in August, the slowest pace in five months, as he stressed Beijing's commitment to shift away from printing money to stimulate growth. He disclosed the figure while speaking at the World Economic Forum in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, ahead of the official data release scheduled next week.

Mainland banks suffered significant losses across the board, with China Merchants Bank Co. falling 2.8%, ICBC and China Construction Bank Corp. declining 2.4%, China Citic Bank Corporation Ltd. losing 2.2%, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. down 2.2%, and Bank of China Ltd. off 2.1%.

Online giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., a top rival of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, skidded 3.3%, after Alibaba unveiled a seemingly conservative price range for its upcoming U.S. IPO and kicked off meetings with prospective investors in New York on Monday.

Another index heavyweight China Mobile Ltd., the country's largest wireless carrier, dropped 2.6%, after Apple Inc. (AAPL) revealed that mainland China is not among the first batch of countries to sell iPhone 6. Other Chinese mobile operators suffered even more, as China Telecom Corp. Ltd. gave up 3.5%, and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. pulled back 3.3%.

In other Asian markets, Japanese stocks bucked the weaker regional trend and closed higher, as the Nikkei Average rose 0.3%, with the yen (USDJPY) weakening against the dollar. The dollar bought Yen106.751 yen, up from Yen106.171 the previous day. The broader Topix index advanced 0.6%.

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended down 0.6%, and the Australian dollar (AUDUSD) fell to 91.28 U.S. cents from 92.11 cents a day earlier.

On the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index finished 0.4% lower.

Markets in South Korea were closed Wednesday for a public holiday.

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