Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index tumbled 3.51 percent
Monday with every one of the benchmark index's 43 constituents
settling lower, following a decline on Wall Street last Friday and
concerns about the Chinese mainland taking further tightening
measures.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 967.06 points, or 3.51
percent, to 26,596.58 after fluctuating between 26,551.37 and 27,
245.51 during the session. Turnover totaled 104.44 billion HK
dollars (13.43 billion U.S. dollars), down from 111.78 billion HK
dollars (14.35 billion U.S. dollars) last Friday.
Some analysts said the market will likely remain volatile in the
last two weeks of the year and the benchmark index may end 2007
around the 25,000 point-level on an anticipated U.S. economic
slowdown.
But some analysts expected the market to stage a technical
rebound in the near term as the Hang Sang Index has fallen more
than 2,600 points, or 9 percent, in the past four sessions.
The slump in Hong Kong market Monday followed the Dow Jones
Industrial Average falling 1.3 percent Friday to 13,339.85 after
the U.S. government reported higher-than-expected consumer price
inflation, which increases pressure on the Federal Reserve not to
cut interest rates further.
A comment from a high-level official of People's Bank of China
that excessive lending can cause property market bubbles also
raised concern about more curbs on Chinese mainland's real-estate
market.
The Hang Seng property sub-index moved down 6.11 percent to
close at 34,500.56, following by the Commerce and Industry at 3.25
percent, the Finance at 3.15 percent and the Utilities at 2.70
percent.
Chinese property developer China Overseas slid 5 percent to 14.
20 HK dollars and blue-chip Sun Hung Kai Properties, which recently
said it would team up with two Chinese mainland's developers in
Guangzhou, plunged 6.5 percent to 148.90 HK dollars.
On Chinese telecom stocks front, China Mobile was down 3.92
percent, China Unicom down 1.26 percent, Netcom down 2.5 percent,
and China Telecom down 3.64 percent.
The six banks continuously declined in the fears over more
austerity measures from the Chinese mainland at weekend. ICBC, CCB,
Bank of China, CM Bank, Bankcomm and CITIC Bank shed 1.73 percent
to 3.58 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2007)
