HONG KONG - Hong Kong stocks opened significantly lower Friday following plunges in other major markets from New York to London as a worldwide losing streak triggered by falling oil prices and worsened by fears for the COVID-19-hit global economy continued.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index plunged as much as 7.36% at its Friday's opening before narrowing losses to close at 24,032.91, down 1.14%

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 276.16 points or 1.14 percent to close Friday's session at 24,032.91.

Hang Seng plummeted 7.36 percent to 22,519.32 points at Friday's opening, at more than a three-year low, and then narrowed to less than 5 percent.

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Bluechips suffered, with some down by more than 10 percent. Leading meat producer WH Group dropped over 11 percent, internet firm Tencent Holdings down by over 7 percent and telecom carrier China Mobile down by over 8 percent. Financial giants AIA Group and HSBC Holdings were also among the hardest-hit.

Global markets have been tumbling this week after oil prices plunged on the failure of main crude producing countries including Saudi Arabia and Russia to strike a deal about production cuts. Intensifying coronavirus fears exacerbated sell-off on major markets, with Wall Street on Thursday witnessing a historic nosedive in its worst session since 1987.

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The Dow slumped more than 2,300 points, or about 10 percent, at the close, notching its biggest one-day percentage drop since the Black Monday market crash. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also plummeted. 

"As the economic impact widens, investors' hopes for ‘enough’ government stimulus are growing. Yet those hopes are turning into a realization that it is apparently a lot harder to provide economic support to people and businesses in western countries than it is in China,” said Mark Hafele, chief investment officer of UBS global wealth management.

Encouraging signs from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea suggest that “the novel coronavirus outbreak can be contained with time and action”, Hafele noted.

As the virus continues to spread in Europe and the US with measures announced so far proving “less restrictive”, he expected public fear and economic disruption to continue to rise through the end of March.

In the absence of “evidence of successful virus containment in developed markets, clarity on the net economic impact, and a concerted global policy response”, “it is clearly possible that markets could trade at lower levels from here in the coming days or weeks amid high levels of volatility,” he warned.

Luo Weiteng contributed to the report