The Hang Seng Index fell 1.4 per cent to 25,175.31 as of 11.14am local time, extending a 0.4 per cent decline on Thursday. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 1.3 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index were both little changed.
China’s key economic data on July, released on Friday, missed analysts’ estimates, as the effect of trade-in programmes for household appliances wore off, the woes of the property market continued and some emerging industries were mired in overcapacity.
Industrial production rose by 5.7 per cent from a year earlier in July and retail sales grew by 3.7 per cent, according to the statistics bureau, falling short of the estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who expected increases of 6.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively. Expansion in fixed-asset investment in the first seven months of the year slowed to 1.6 per cent, versus the projection of 2.7 per cent growth.
A separate report released earlier also showed that a decline in property prices continued in July.
