HK Stock Market Move | Gaming stocks continue to decline; market focuses on Macau tourism performance during the double holidays; Citi says recent betting sentiment unusually quiet.

Gaming stocks continue to decline. As of press time, MELCO INT'L DEV (00200) fell 3.43% to HK$2.815; MGM CHINA (02282) dropped 3.14% to HK$9.56; SJM HOLDINGS (00880) declined 2.46% to HK$1.39; GALAXY ENT (00027) slipped 1.87% to HK$31.42. On the news front, Wong Suk Fan, President of the Macau Hotel Association, said in an interview that with the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the overall hotel occupancy rate in Macau currently stands at 80%. With some time still to go before the "October 1st" National Day Golden Week, hotel booking rates for the first three days of the Golden Week have reached 70% to 80% so far, with hotels in the Cotai area seeing relatively higher occupancy rates. Based on past experience, it is estimated that the overall hotel occupancy rate could climb to 90% by then, with occupancy rates expected to ease somewhat on the fourth and fifth days of the holiday period. Citi released a research report stating that the results of its September survey of high-end mass-market gaming tables in Macau were among the worst in recent years. It observed that the betting atmosphere in casinos was generally quieter than three months ago when the World Cup had just begun, though the reason for the weak sentiment could not yet be determined. As a result, the bank cautiously lowered its September gaming revenue forecast from MOP 19 billion to MOP 18 billion, implying that Macau's third-quarter gaming revenue is expected to decline 4% year-on-year. CLSA, meanwhile, said it has turned more cautious on Macau's gaming revenue outlook due to a lack of sufficient supportive macroeconomic indicators.