Hong Kong stocks ended sharply lower Wednesday as the market posted its fifth consecutive fall, tracking sharp losses on Wall Street overnight on mounting worries about the subprime mortgage crisis and a possible recession in the U.S.

 

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 5.4 percent, or 1,386.93 points, to 24,450.85, its third biggest single-day loss by number of points, after the index traded between 25,131.11 and 24,320.03 during the session. The Hang Seng Index The index has lost 3,165 points, or 11 percent, since Jan. 9.

 

Turnover totaled 145.15 billion Hong Kong dollars (18.64 billion U.S. dollars), up from 121.07 billion (15.54 billion U.S. dollars) Tuesday.

 

Traders said bearishness overseas, particularly in the U.S., will likely continue to weigh on Hong Kong's markets in the near future, though the economic fundamentals of the city remains sound.

 

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.2 percent to 12,501.11, its lowest level since April 2007, after Citigroup posted its first quarterly loss in 17 years on 17.4 billion U.S. dollars in subprime-related writedowns and said it would cut its dividend by 41 percent.

 

A decline in U.S. retail sales during December also weighed on the market. HSBC fell 4.8 percent to 115.00 Hong Kong dollars, China Construction Bank slid 4.6 percent to 5.85 Hong Kong dollars and Bank of China was down 5.4 percent at 3.31 Hong Kong dollars. Hong Kong Exchanges fell 7 percent to 172.00 Hong Kong dollars. The stock slid 20 percent over the past five trading days.

 

Major property companies were down. Henderson Land fell 5.1 percent to 70.35 Hong Kong dollars, Sun Hung Kai Properties slid 4. 2 percent to 155.70 Hong Kong dollars and Cheung Kong lost 4.8 percent to 129.20 Hong Kong dollars.

 

The Hang Seng Index's record single-day loss by number of points was a 1,526.02-point decline on Nov. 5. The second biggest one-day loss was on Oct. 28, 1997, when the index slid 1,438.31 points.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)