Hong Kong’s top gambling stocks fell sharply on Monday after the city of Macau closed all its casinos and ordered its citizens to return home for a week, as the local government tries to prevent an ongoing Covid outbreak and largely align the city’s pandemic measures with major ones. China’s Covid 0 policy.
On Monday afternoon, shares of Hong Kong-listed casinos Wynn Macau, Sands China, MGM China Holdings and Melco International fell 7. 06%, 8. 47%, 6. 29% and 7. 66% respectively.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 3. 05 percent, driven by falling casino stocks and Beijing’s earlier ruling to high-tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and others for failing to comply with the country’s antitrust rules.
Macau, a special Chinese administrative region, began a seven-day lockdown on Monday and closed the city’s casinos for the first time since the early days of the pandemic as it continues to stumble upon new cases of covid-19 in the community.
Macau on Monday reported 59 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections detected in the existing outbreak, which began last month, to more than 1500.
Reflecting the process adopted by mainland Chinese authorities, Macau is conducting several mass circulars (the seventh circular ends on Monday) as it tries to isolate the outbreak.
The most recent outbreak in Macau was first reported on June 19 and came after several months with no Covid-19 cases in the Chinese Special Administrative Region. At the beginning of the outbreak, the government temporarily closed most of the city’s businesses, schools and public places, but allowed casinos, the industry that directly employs or employs the majority of Macau’s citizens and accounts for 80% of the economy of the city. to stay open. The city’s casinos had previously been closed for 15 days at the start of the pandemic in 2020, but have largely remained operational since then. Like its mainland counterparts, the Macau government has pledged to adhere to China’s “0-Covid” policy, which aims to eliminate the local spread of the virus. However, foreign experts have questioned the wisdom of the policy that has led to painfully prolonged lockdowns in major Chinese cities, adding its monetary center Shanghai and causing severe economic disruption. More than 614,000 people in Macau, or 94. 6% of its general population, have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the city’s health ministry.
28 %. That’s what casino mogul and Hong Kong billionaire Lui Che Woo’s net worth has fallen since the pandemic began, according to Forbes Asia. The actions of casinos such as Lui’s Galaxy Entertainment have been greatly affected by the decline in tourism due to the pandemic.
Macau closes casinos as city enters a week-long shutdown (Wall Street Journal)
Macau shuts down all casinos to curb COVID and gambling crash (Reuters)