HK Stock Market Move | STANCHART(02888) fell more than 6% at one point, and Chief Financial Officer Diego De Giorgi resigned to take an external job opportunity.

STANCHART (02888) plunged more than 6% in the afternoon, hitting a decrease of 3.42% by the time of publication, trading at 195.1 Hong Kong dollars with a turnover of 5.08 billion Hong Kong dollars. On the news front, STANCHART announced at noon today that Diego De Giorgi has decided to accept an external job opportunity and has resigned as an executive director and chief financial officer. Peter Burrill has been appointed as the interim chief financial officer with immediate effect. STANCHART stated that Pete, the current central finance director and deputy CFO, will be based in London and will report directly to group CEO Bill Winters after assuming the role of CFO. Furthermore, a Goldman Sachs report pointed out that STANCHART will announce its fourth quarter results, with an expected underlying pre-tax profit of 1.3 billion US dollars, a 23% year-on-year increase, in line with market expectations. Goldman Sachs expects the fourth quarter revenue to be somewhat weak, with a slight decrease in net interest income and a drop in non-interest income. Although wealth management and global markets have been driving non-interest income, due to seasonal factors at the end of the year and a weak market sentiment in the fourth quarter, the performance of these two businesses is expected to be lower on a sequential basis.