(Yicai Global) March 5 -- China sales at Hong Kong jeweler Chow Tai Fook Group were down 50 percent annually over the first two months of this year as retail across the country slumped due to the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Despite the slip in sales, its share price [HKG:1929] was up 6.5 percent today at HKD7.10 (USD91 US cents) as of 3.18 p.m.

Sales in Hong Kong and Macao were down 42 percent and Chinese mainland sales fell by 60 percent in January and February, the jeweler revealed yesterday. E-commerce sales on the Chinese mainland were down 24 percent.

Most of the group's retail stores in China closed at the end of January and the beginning of February to adhere to government requirements in controlling the spread of Covid-19, it added. About 70 percent of its Hong Kong and Macao stores and 64 percent of its mainland shops had re-opened by the end of last month Chairman Henry Cheng said.

The group's factories in Foshan and Shenzhen, both in Guangdong province, have recommenced production with consent from the local government, Cheng added, saying its smart manufacturing hub in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, remains closed. The Wuhan plant typically contributes to nearly 20 percent of the group's output, but the Shunde and Shenzhen plants have the capacity to pick up the slack in the meantime, he said.

Chow Tai Fook also operates in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the United States.

Editor: James Boynton