Hong Kong stocks fall as Xpeng leads EV stocks lower, U.S.-China talks kick off

Hong Kong stocks led declines in the Asia-Pacific region on Thursday as Xpeng led electric vehicle stocks lower, while investors digested high-level discussions between the United States and China. The Hang Seng index fell 1.05%, after gaining 3.92% in the previous session. Hong Kong-listed shares of Xpeng dropped 4.2% after the Chinese EV company reported a wider quarterly loss. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday outside of San Francisco in their first face-to-face meeting in a year. The talks were on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference and were a part of efforts between the U.S. and China to boost high-level communication amid continued tensions. Separately, the South Korea stock markets opened an hour later than usual, at 10 a.m. local time. The delayed open was intended to ease rush-hour traffic as college entrance exams were administrated across the country. South Korea’s Kospi was flat, while the Kosdaq higher by 0.39%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 0.20% and the Topix lower by 0.08%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.72%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.67% to close at 7,058.40. Overnight, U.S. stocks climbed, building on the strong rally from Tuesday, on the back of more encouraging inflation data. The S&P 500 advanced 0.16%, while the Nasdaq Composite inched higher by 0.07%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 163.51 points, or 0.47%. The Dow rose for the fourth straight session.