<p>Hong Kong stocks weakened yesterday as China's Covid situation weighed on sentiment, with tech firms particularly hit ahead of their financial result announcements including Alibaba (9988), Kuaishou (1024) and XPeng (9868).</p><p>The Hang Seng Index retreated 1.2 percent, with the tech gauge down 2.5 percent.</p><p>Alibaba fell 3.4 percent yesterday ahead of its announcement of its full-year earnings this Thursday.</p><p>Its full-year adjusted profit is expected to drop 22 percent year-on-year to nearly 133.7 billion yuan (HK$157.72 billion) for the year ended March 31 this year, an average estimate based on 13 brokerage firms' projections.</p><p>Meanwhile, Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng also sank 6.5 percent ahead of its earnings release later in the day. After the market closed, the firm reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as supply-chain snarls and surging materials costs squeeze margins.</p><p>XPeng's net loss more than doubled to 1.7 billion yuan in the three months trough March.</p><p>That compared to analyst estimates of a 1.52 billion yuan shortfall. The firm's sales forecast for the current quarter also came in below analyst projections.</p><p>While XPeng more than doubled vehicle deliveries and revenue last quarter, the company and its peers have since been hit hard by Shanghai's Covid lockdown and supply chain snarls in China. Shipments plunged 42 percent in April from March, to just 9,002 vehicles.</p><p>Also, short-video giant Kuaishou, which will release its first-quarter result today, also slumped 7.4 percent yesterday.</p><p>Meanwhile, shares of four new blue-chip entrants rose, with China Hongqiao Group (1378) and Orient Overseas (International) (0316) seeing the biggest gains, jumping 7.9 and 6.3 percent, respectively.</p><p>AAC Technologies (2018), which will be removed from the HSI, lost 6.9 percent.</p>
