HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group said it plans to shut down about a fifth of its Hong Kong stores as anti-China protests in the city weigh on the retail market and deter tourists.

About 40 stores will have their leases expire in the financial year starting in April, and the company plans to shut "about mid-teens of those," it said in an emailed response to a Bloomberg inquiry on Tuesday (Jan 14). The closures will mainly be located in tourist districts such as Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui.

The second-largest jeweler in the world by market cap currently has 86 retail outlets in Hong Kong, according to its website. The jeweler said it expects "macro headwinds" to continue to have an impact in the next six to 12 months. On Friday, the retailer reported that same-store sales in Hong Kong and Macau for the three months ended in December fell 35 per cent from a year earlier.

Chow Tai Fook, controlled by the billionaire Cheng family, said it will continue to review store productivity and optimize its retail network in Hong Kong.