Hong Kong shares suffer biggest fall in 4 months on global woes

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong stocks suffered their worst day in four months with investors joining a global equity sell-off on lingering economic concerns and rising risks from the UK's possible exit from the European Union.

The Hang Seng index fell 2.5 per cent, to 20,512.99, while the China Enterprises Index lost 2.4 per cent, to 8,619.92 points.

Global market volatility has surged ahead of this week's central bank meetings as well as Britain's June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the European Union.

The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan are all due to hold policy meetings this week.

Sentiment was not helped by lacklustre Chinese data.

China's fixed-asset investment growth was slower than expected, while industrial output and retail sales data were not encouraging either.

"Given today's data, there is higher risk for China to miss the growth target of 6.5 per cent year-on-year in Q2," ANZ wrote in a research note.

All main sectors were down sharply.

REUTERS