Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index ended down on an expected policy tightening in China and Wall Street's fall overnight Thursday.

 

The Hang Seng Index moved down 414.80 points, or 1.42 percent, to close at 28,751.21 Thursday, after fluctuating between 28,730.30 and 29,249.99 during the session. Turnover totaled 119.71 billion HK dollars (US$15.40 billion), down from 149.12 billion HK dollars (US$19.17 billion) the previous session.

 

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks 44 mostly state-owned Chinese enterprises listed in Hong Kong, went down 1. 97 percent on rising expectations for another interest rate hike.

 

Hong Kong property firms led Thursday's declines, with the Property ending down 2.98 percent to 36,712.90 on profit-taking. Henderson Land tumbled 4.3 percent to 68.75 HK dollars, while Li Ka-shing's property flagship Cheung Kong fell 3.5 percent to 144.60 HK dollars. Hang Lung Property dropped 2.4 percent to 34.05 HK dollars.

 

The Other three major categories also lost ground. The Utilities fell 1.78 percent, followed by the Commerce and Industry at 1.40 percent and the Finance at 1.02 percent.

 

HSBC, the second-largest Hong Kong blue chip by market capitalization behind China Mobile, fell 0.1 percent to 138.80 HK dollars, after the lender said it was taking a larger-than- expected impairment charge on bad loans of US$3.4 billion in its US unit for the third quarter.

 

Hong Kong Exchanges outperformed the market by 3.4 percent up to 247.20 HK dollars after several ratings upgrades from investment banks. The bourse operator said Wednesday its net profit for the third quarter this year nearly tripled from a year earlier.

 

On Chinese telecom stocks front, China Mobile dominating the indices was down 0.85 cent, Netcom down 2.14 percent, China Unicom down 0.39 percent, and China Telecom down 3.83 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2007)