HK Stock Market Move | Gambling stocks continue to decline this month, with Sands China (01928) falling more than 5% and Melco International Development (00200) falling over 4%.

The gaming stocks continued to decline today, extending the fall within the month. As of press time, Sands China (01928) fell 5.41% to HK$19.05; Melco International Development (00200) fell 4.05% to HK$4.98; Wynn Macau (01128) fell 3.65% to HK$6.34; MGM China (02282) fell 3.16% to HK$14.4. On the news front, Morgan Stanley released a research report stating that Macau's gaming gross revenue (GGR) for the first five days of October reached 5.5 billion Macau dollars, with a daily average of about 1.1 billion Macau dollars, the best performance in the past five years. However, compared to the very high base of last year, the year-on-year growth was only 3%, lower than the bank and market expectations. The visitor volume for October 1st to 5th remained the same, further dragging down the GGR growth, as the visitor volume dropped by 25% on October 5th due to a typhoon. However, the bank is not concerned about the seemingly weak growth momentum currently, expecting a year-on-year growth of 11 to 13% for October GGR, reaching 23 billion Macau dollars, the highest in 6 years. UBS stated that Wynn Macau's market share of gaming revenue in September significantly increased, with a monthly increase of about 200 basis points, driving its market share in the third quarter up by 150 basis points; the company with the second-highest increase in market share was Galaxy Entertainment, with a monthly increase of about 50 basis points in September, but still a decrease of 30 basis points in the third quarter. The bank stated that the market shares of SJM Holdings and Wynn Palace were higher than expected, while those of MGM China, Sands China, and Galaxy Entertainment were lower than expected.