Hong Kong Closes Stock Market as Typhoon Passes

By Fion Li and Stephanie Tong - Sep 29, 2011 9:24 AM GMT+0700
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Victoria Harbour is seen during a Typhoon 8 Signal Warning as Typhoon Nesat passes close to Hong Kong. Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong shut financial markets, schools, courts and government offices, raising its highest storm signal in two years as Typhoon Nesat brought gale-force winds and rain into the city.

The typhoon, which killed at least 20 people in the Philippines, was centered about 350 kilometers (217 miles) south-southwest of Hong Kong, and is heading toward China’s Hainan Island, the city’s observatory said. The No. 8 gale signal will remain for most of the day, it said.

“It’s deadly quiet outside, like a dark, wet, ghost town,” said Gavin Parry, managing director of Parry International Trading Ltd., an equity trader, in Hong Kong. “There are few mini buses, no public buses and taxis are trawling for passengers to pay an extra HK$100 fare given the typhoon.”

Gale winds swept the city, home to the world’s fifth- biggest equity market, with trees collapsing, scaffolding falling off buildings and a vessel crashing against a pier. All bus, ferry and trams services are suspended, and the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. canceled the morning trading session.

“Nesat is closest to Hong Kong now,” the observatory said in its statement at 9:45 a.m. local time. “Gale winds are expected to persist over Hong Kong.”

The typhoon is forecast to move west-northwest at about 22 kilometers an hour, the observatory said. Winds with average speed of 63 kilometers an hour are blowing from the southeast direction, it said. The city raised the typhoon signal 8 and above about 1.4 times on average a year between 1971 to 2000, according to data from the observatory.

Asian Stocks Fall

“I got in by a cab today, and it took me about 10 minutes to get one,” Frank Huang, head of trading for fixed income at Sinopac Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong, said by telephone. “Traffic was smooth as there aren’t many cars on the roads. I have to come back to work as trading is still going on in other markets.”

Trading in Hong Kong is suspended as stocks in Asia fell for the first time in three days. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 1.1 percent as of 9:44 a.m. in Tokyo. The dollar and yen strengthened, and commodities extended yesterday’s declines amid concern European policy makers will struggle to stem the region’s debt crisis.

Bourses Suspend Trading

The afternoon trading session will start at 2:00 p.m. if the observatory lowers the signal at or before noon, the bourse said in a statement issued at 9:28 a.m. today. The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange said trading is suspended.

The government has received three reports of fallen scaffolding, with one incident damaging a taxi and hurting the driver and passenger. The police also evacuated 57 people when a vessel hit a coastal facility at Heng Fa Chuen, on the eastern part of Hong Kong island. There are 30 reports of trees collapsing, the fire services department said.

About 38 flights have been delayed, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Airport Authority said, declining to be identified.

The government’s marine department said the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal in Sheung Wan has been closed. A vessel was pushed by waves and crashed into a pier at Chai Wan, Cable Television reported, citing a firefighter.

In the Philippines, the number of “affected” people reached 171,570 in 22 provinces, the disaster risk agency said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Tong in Hong Kong at stong17@bloomberg.net; Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hwee Ann Tan at hatan@bloomberg.net