Hong Kong Stocks Shed 2.46% on U.S. Declines

Hong Kong stocks followed overnight clues from the Wall Street to close 2.46 percent lower Wednesday, ending a five-day rally.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index shed 334.5 points, or 2.41 percent, and widened its losses thereafter. It once dipped to as low as 13,363.06 before finishing morning trading at 13,437.75, down 442.89 points, or 3.19 percent.

Turnover further shrank to 39.91 billion HK dollars (5.12 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 42.06 billion HK dollars (5.39 billion U.S. dollars), which was already rather thin considering Hong Kong's status as an international financial hub.

Analysts attributed the losses to sharp overnight declines on Wall Street as investors deemed the announced U.S. bailout plan inadequate to solve the problems.

But the market sentiment was still not too bad and the losses were natural given the over 8 percent gains on the Hong Kong market over the past five sessions, although uncertainties remained over the U.S. economic outlook, they said.

Only seven of the 42 blue chips turned out gainers, two remained flat, while the other 33 lost ground, with several players shedding over 5 percent.

The finance sector led the falls in the Hong Kong market, with the finance sub-index down 3.12 percent. Banking giant HSBC shed 3.05 HK dollars, or 4.84 percent, at 59.95 HK dollars, while its local unit Hang Seng Bank was down 1.52 percent.

ICBC, the leading commercial lender on the Chinese mainland, was down 2.99 percent, China Construction Bank down 2.38 percent, and Bank of China, another state-owned mainland banking giants, was off 3.21 percent.

BOC Hong Kong went down 0.18 HK dollars, or 2.16 percent, at 8.17 HK dollars.

China Life, the mainland insurance player, lost half a HK dollar at 23.3 HK dollars, while Ping An was off 1.97 percent at 37.25 HK dollars.

China Mobile, the mainland telecom giant and a market heavyweight on the Hong Kong stock market, shed 1.95 HK dollars, or 2.55 percent, to close at 74.5 HK dollars. Its competitor China Unicom was down 3.06 percent at 7.6 HK dollars.

The commerce and industry sub-index, also one of the major stock categories, trailed with a loss of 2.31 percent at 7,610.04.

The mainland energy shares were all losers, with PetroChina share prices down 2.91 percent, Sinopec down 4.76 percent and CNOOC, 2.91 percent.

The properties sub-index also shed 298.06 points, or 1.81 percent, while the utilities genre also edged down 59.32 points, or 0.17 percent, at 34,041.81.

SHK Properties, the leading residential developer in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, lost 1.5 HK dollars, or 2.27 percent, at 64.45 HK dollars. Cheung Kong, the business conglomerate headed by billionaire Li Ka-shing, fared better, down 1.33 percent at 66.65 HK dollars.

The shipping stocks trimmed their gains accumulated over the previous rally sessions, with mainland industry leader China COSCO down 5.33 percent at 5.51 HK dollars in spite of a rising BDI index, the key industry indicator.

HKEx, the only stock exchange operator in Hong Kong, also shed 2 HK dollars, or 2.86 percent, at 68 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars =1 U.S. dollar)

Source:Xinhua