Source: Bloomberg

Author: John Cheng

Hong Kong's $ 4.6 trillion (S $ 6.18 trillion) stock market has experienced historic downturn, which is spreading the financial industry in the area.

The data of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows that following the historic record of 49 brokers closed in 2022, 30 local brokers have closed their business this year.In addition, due to the sharp decline in the first public offering (IPO), some banks in Wall Street have cut off investment bankers.

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The Hang Seng Index has moved towards the fourth consecutive year, which will be the longest continuous decline in the history of the index, and it will fall to the lowest point in the past year this week.Compared with the five -year average, the average daily turnover has fallen by 14%, and the IPO market has gone through the worst year since 2001.

After adopting strict epidemic prevention restrictions and Beijing's national security law in Hong Kong, long -term downturn and job opportunities have been lost, which has even more questioned Hong Kong's position as the top international financial center in Asia.

Xu Yibin, the chief executive officer of Hong Kong's broker Yaocai Securities, said that the closing and layoffs of securities firms are the worst he have ever seen.The key is to improve the liquidity of the market.He said he couldn't see any dawn at the end of the tunnel.

Small and medium -sized securities firms are the first in the market.The Hong Kong Securities Industry Association's survey of local brokers earlier this year showed that more than 72%of brokers lost last year, of which at least a quarter planned to reduce the business scale this year.

Although analysts predict that the Chinese stock market will recover after China's zero restrictions on epidemic prevention, investors will continue to be pessimistic.The economic downturn, weak consumption, tight relations between the United States and China, and the real estate crisis caused foreign funds to escape.

Dahua's investment chief Qi Wang said that the lack of liquidity indicates that the agency's interest in Hong Kong and mainland China is falling to a new low.In the past two years, global investors have sold Hong Kong stocks.Many people now believe that from the perspective of global investment portfolios, China is irrelevant.

The depletion of transactions exacerbates the feeling of market dilemma.This year, it is expected to be the year since 2001 (after the network bubble break), the lowest IPO of Hong Kong, the IPO scale is $ 5.1 billion.Three years ago, it was as high as $ 52 billion, and compared with the average of $ 31 billion in the past 10 years, it fell by 84%.