Restrictions on mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong have caught Wall Street’s attention, with worries growing that the rules could hurt luxury merchants.
Announced a week ago, the new policy limits visitors from the neighbouring city of Shenzhen to one visit per week to Hong Kong, rather than multiple trips. Goldman Sachs estimated an overall 2 percent decline in Hong Kong retail sales as a result of the restrictions, with cosmetic firms hit the most.
"Day-trippers are more focused on buying certain products such as cosmetics and food/alcohol/tobacco, which is 14 percent and 17 percent of total shopping spend in 2013, respectively," analyst Ricky Tsang said in a Sunday note.
(Source: CNBC)