Hong Kong and Mainland Stocks Slide as US Rate Hike Expectations Bite

The Hang Seng Index fell 148 points, or 0.6 %, to 24,805, marking a 3.3 % weekly decline. Shanghai’s Composite slipped 46 points, 1.18 %, to 3,888, while the CSI300 dropped 0.8 % for the week to its lowest level since early April. Turnover in onshore shares hovered near the year’s lowest, reflecting a drying liquidity pool after investors took profits from a record AI‑led rally. The tech‑heavy Star50 index fell as much as 3 % to its lowest since late April, and non‑ferrous metal shares dropped more than 4 %, led by Zijin Mining’s 5.4 % slide. Amid these falls, AI chipmaker Shanghai Enflame surged about 180 % on its Shanghai debut, raising 6.12 billion yuan in its IPO. Rising expectations for a Fed rate hike, spurred by August producer‑price data, dampened risk sentiment across the region. The market’s retreat underscores how U.S. monetary policy signals can quickly erode confidence in Asian equities, especially in tech and metal sectors that had benefited from recent AI enthusiasm.