Oil-related equities continued their recent downward slide during Thursday's Hong Kong trading session, with multiple headwinds pressuring international crude benchmarks.

As of the time of writing, China Oilfield Services Ltd (02883) fell 3.18% to HK$7.61, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (00386) dropped 2.50% to HK$4.49, PetroChina Co Ltd (00857) declined 2.40% to HK$9.555, and CNOOC Ltd (00883) slipped 1.89% to HK$23.9.

On the data front, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude stockpiles fell by 640,000 barrels last week, compared with a prior draw of 391,000 barrels, while market consensus had anticipated a reduction of 1.5 million barrels.

Adding to the bearish sentiment, the Federal Reserve unanimously voted to raise its benchmark federal funds rate target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%, marking the first rate hike since July 2023. Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco is working to bypass a damaged section of its pipeline and plans to restore roughly half of its capacity within days.

These mounting negative factors dealt a blow to international oil prices. On Thursday, the front-month WTI crude futures contract slumped more than 1% intraday, while Brent crude lost ground, falling below the $105-per-barrel threshold.

Notably, despite crude prices remaining elevated above the $100 mark, oil sector stocks have logged consecutive sessions of losses in recent days. The sector's sensitivity to oil price gains has diminished, and the rally accumulated in earlier sessions is now facing profit-taking pressure.

Market analysts point out that oil stocks are fundamentally priced on discounted future cash flows. As forward crude prices have yet to exhibit panic-driven surges, investors are avoiding overpricing tight supply-demand conditions in the longer term, which has weighed on the sector's recent performance.