Hong Kong stocks hover near 2-month low as investors assess Trump’s new China tariffs

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Trump said he would impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on goods from China

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Zhang Shidongin Shanghai

Published: 10:30am, 26 Nov 2024Updated: 4:46pm, 26 Nov 2024

Hong Kong stocks hovered around a two-month low as investors assessed the impact of additional tariffs that US president-elect Donald Trump said he would impose on Chinese imports.

The Hang Seng Index rose less than 0.1 per cent to 19,159.20 at the close. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.3 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index slipped 0.2 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.1 per cent.

Chinese search giant Baidu surged on media reports that its autonomous ride-hailing platform would start a trial operation in Hong Kong. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group slumped before its earnings release later on Tuesday.

On social media Monday, Trump said he would impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on goods from China as well as a 25 per cent levy on all imports from Canada and Mexico. Earlier, he threatened to apply a universal 60 per cent tariff on all Chinese imports, a rate that UBS said would reduce China’s growth by 2.5 percentage points.

The new tariffs are aimed at forcing the three nations to bolster border security and crack down on fentanyl shipments to the US, Trump said. He accused China of failing to deliver on promises to apply the death penalty to fentanyl traffickers, writing that “drugs are pouring into our country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before.”

“The market has already fully expected the tariff stuff and priced in the worst-case scenario,” said Wang Chen, a partner at Xufunds Investment Management in Shanghai. “A 10 per cent tariff is lower than expected. But that doesn’t mean that’ll be the final decision, given that Trump hasn’t taken office yet. So we’ll still face some uncertainty on the tariff issue.”