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As the Hong Kong stock market has declined along with global markets today (August 10), in response to media enquiries, a spokesman for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said that external factors including unwinding of Yen carry trade and the performance of global markets which are affected by the US sub-prime mortgage problem have increased the volatility of the Hong Kong stock market. Although our market is affected by the weak performance of overseas markets, we are confident that our financial systems would be able to cope with the market volatility given our sound economic fundamentals. The government and all regulatory bodies will continue to monitor the market closely.
Due to the hoisting of Typhoon Signal No. 8, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. today terminated trading in the securities and derivatives markets at 2:45pm. At market closing, the Hang Seng Index dropped 646 points (-2.88%) to 21,792 points.
Ends/Friday, August 10, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:22
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