Hong Kong’s Stock Market: ‘Panic Buying’

Hong Kong’s jittery stock market, fueled by rumors from Beijing that hard-line Premier Li Peng might step down, bounced back Tuesday to post its greatest one-day gain since 1986.

Buyers snapped up shares dumped Monday in response to fears of bloodshed after the weekend declaration of martial law in Beijing.

“Yesterday we had panic selling, today we had panic buying,” said Laurence Amerine, research manager at DMT Securities.

On Monday, the market tumbled 10.8%, a fall of 339.06 points. But Tuesday, the Hang Seng index shot up 261.08 points to 3,067.65.

Hong Kong’s stock market is extremely vulnerable to political events in China, which is due to take control of Hong Kong in 1997.