HONG KONG, Jan 17 (AFP): Hong Kong stocks hit an all-time high today, breaking a record that had been in place for more than 10 years, but most other major Asia markets fell into the red with energy firms hit by a dive in oil prices.
The dollar rebounded from morning losses to extend Tuesday's recovery though bitcoin was well down following what one analyst called a "cryptocalypse" that saw digital currencies take a hammering.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index spent most of the day in negative territory after ending at a record high close on Tuesday. But late buying saw shares stage a recovery to finish up 0.3 per cent at 31,983.41 -- overtaking its previous high seen on October 30, 2007.
The HSI surged by a third in 2017 and has continued its stellar run at the start of the new year, with a record 14-day winning streak only ending on Monday.
Analysts now expect the index to press on with its advance to as high as 34,000 by the end of the year.
However, most other markets in the region tracked losses on Wall Street, where investors returned from a long holiday weekend to political horse-trading as Washington lawmakers struggle to avert a crippling government shutdown.
While a deal to fund programmes is expected to be met by the Friday deadline, the uncertainty provided an opportunity to cash in after all three main indexes hit peaks last week.
The retreat also comes after a blistering start to the year for equity traders, and Hartmut Issel, head of Asia Pacific equity and credit at UBS AG Wealth Management in Singapore, told Bloomberg Television: "It's more of a healthy correction" in stocks.
"The last two and a half weeks have been very strong and in some cases we were really wondering if you extrapolate this another three or four weeks we would have exhausted the potential we saw for the entire year."
Tokyo shed 0.4 per cent on a stronger yen, while Sydney fell 0.5 per cent, Singapore slipped 0.4 per cent and Seoul fell 0.3 per cent. However, Shanghai added 0.2 per cent, while there were also gains in Taipei, Manila and Wellington.
Among the big losers were energy firms after both main oil contracts sank more than one per cent as expectations of falling US stockpiles were overshadowed by worries that Russia is considering ending its role in an output freeze with OPEC.
PetroChina, CNOOC and Sinopec in Hong Kong all lost more than one per cent while Japan's Inpex was 1.2 per cent lower. Rio Tinto tumbled more than three per cent in Sydney, where Woodside Petroleum lost 0.5 per cent.
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