Hong Kong stocks extended their winning streak to two consecutive days on Tuesday, October 6, with the Hang Seng Index rising 1% to settle at 24,280, as reported by Live Mint. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.87% on Monday, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index advanced 0.82%, demonstrating sustained investor interest in technology and pharmaceutical sectors. The gains came as investors tracked positive overseas market performance, with the Hang Seng Biotech Index climbing nearly 3% leading sectoral advances.
Technology and pharmaceutical sectors continued to drive market performance, with WuXi Biologics and Sino Biopharmaceutical rallying over 4% each, as reported by Reuters. Sunny Optical, Baidu, Kuaishou and Alibaba gained between 2.8% and 3.7%, providing strong support to the broader market. However, pressure on rate-sensitive sectors persisted, with property stocks remaining under significant pressure and financial stocks continuing to face headwinds from rising US Treasury yields. New World Development was among the biggest decliners, falling 3.8%, following the company's debt exchange offer announcement that would allow bondholders to swap certain notes maturing in 2027 and 2028 for new secured debt due in 2032.
Treasury yields continued to weigh on Asian markets, with the 10-year Treasury yield down 3 basis points to 5.281% after reaching its highest level since April 2002 on Monday, as reported by Live Mint. The 30-year Treasury yield was down by just under 3 basis points to 5.637%, after also rising to levels not seen since May 2002. Higher rates usually help bank margins, yet financials led the selloff, with HSBC Holdings shares falling as much as 5.7% and Standard Chartered down about 5% in morning trading. According to Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier Singapore, the Hang Seng index universe gets additional headwinds from the US rate cycle channelled through the HKD peg.
Key Asian markets showed mixed results as investors responded to strong tech-driven gains on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to 70,683.98, crossing the 70,000 mark for the first time since early July, while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9% to 6,941.39. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 8,735.70, and Taiwan's Taiex edged up 0.2%. India's Sensex added 1%, with markets in mainland China remaining closed for the National Day holiday. The rally was supported by strong earnings and artificial intelligence investments, with OpenAI reportedly in talks with multiple UAE investment funds for a $30 billion financing round and China's DeepSeek and Moonshot AI raising billions in funding.
Oil prices declined early Tuesday, with Brent crude down 0.8% to $99.48 per barrel, falling back below the $100 mark, as reported by Live Mint. The decline followed rising Persian Gulf exports and a Saudi Arabian price cut that pointed to a loosening market. US oil dropped below $90 as President Trump prepared to ease limits on tax-exempt diesel use. Meanwhile, US employment data showed employers added 29,000 jobs last month, fewer than economists expected and a slowdown from August's net hiring rate of 133,000, helping to alleviate inflation concerns. The US government's jobs report helped ease worries about higher inflation, providing additional support to global markets.
