Hong Kong's Hang Seng Plunges 679 Points Below 23,000; Alibaba Falls Under HK$100, Lenovo Tumbles Nearly 9%

Full report

At the midday close on October 22, the Hang Seng Index fell 679 points (-2.87%) to 22,971, losing the 23,000 level and touching 22,952.81 intraday; morning turnover reached HK$127.45 billion. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 4.64% to 3,809, its lowest in more than two years. Alibaba fell about 6% into the HK$97 range (an intraday low near HK$98.80, breaking below HK$100), Lenovo lost nearly 9%, and CATL declined almost 6% for its seventh consecutive losing session; Tencent extended its slide below HK$400, down about 3.2% to HK$381.2, according to Asia Daily. Property shares fell more than 2%, financials and utilities more than 1%; 94 Hang Seng constituents fell and just one rose.

It was the third straight losing session, with about 1,215 points lost and the 24,000 and 23,000 levels both broken. Southbound funds posted their sixth consecutive trading day of net outflows: on October 21 they sold a net HK$4.4 billion-plus, over half of it concentrated in tech and internet names, with Tencent topping the sell list at HK$1.706 billion of net selling and Alibaba at HK$878 million. Lenovo is reportedly seeking a US$2 billion five-year syndicated loan at SOFR plus 75 basis points.

Markets blame the global selloff on doubts about returns on AI investment: after Meta and Tesla reported earnings, Wall Street AI names tumbled and the rout spread across Asia and Europe, where stocks also closed sharply lower on Thursday. The Hang Seng Tech Index is down more than 30% year-to-date; weighted toward traditional internet and e-commerce platforms with limited AI hardware exposure, it has largely missed the global AI rally of the past year.