SIMSEK said final liquidation of investment funds will require more time.

Hong Kong stocks traded choppy in the morning session. By midday the Hang Seng Index was down 0.95% at 23,956.93 and the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.21% to 4,058.39. Losers included non-ferrous metals, power-equipment and retail; tech and new-energy vehicle names weakened. Sector gainers: CXO concept and physical AI. Notable movers: Wuyi Vision (06651.HK) +27%, UBTECH (09880.HK) +7.9%, Hansoh Pharmaceutical (03692.HK) +7.5%, Sunny Optical (02382.HK) +4%+. On the downside Lenovo Group (00992.HK) -7.56%, China Molybdenum (03993.HK) and CATL (03750.HK) -6.3%, MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) -4%+, Zhipu (02513.HK), SERES (09927.HK), Pop Mart (09992.HK) and Alibaba (09988.HK) down more than 3%.

Ukraine's armed forces said they will continue striking key Russian military targets until Russia fully ceases military operations against Ukraine.