Hong Kong stocks continued to weaken Monday on volatile trading as the benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 0.56 percent over the Chinese mainland's crackdown on illegal funds outflows.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index opened slightly higher at 27,628.97 and fluctuated sharply between daily high of 27,801.53 and daily low of 27,300.29 before dropping 154.26 points, or 0.56 percent, and closed at 27,460.17.
Turnover shrank to 103.96 billion HK dollars (13.37 billion U.S. dollars) from Friday's 138.3 billion HK dollars (17.78 billion U.S. dollars).
China Mobile, the country's largest mobile phone operator and the market's largest stock measured by capitalization, fell 1.05 percent to 131.8 HK dollars, pulling down the index by 42.96 points alone.
HSBC, another market heavyweight and the largest bank in Hong Kong, weakened 0.51 percent to 135.5 HK dollars.
Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited, the market's sole operator, lost 2.3 percent 229.6 HK dollars.
Local property companies were mixed. Cheung Kong went up 0.65 percent to 138.6 HK dollars. SHK Properties gained 2.01 percent to 146.9 HK dollars. New World Development surged 3 percent to 27.5 HK dollars. Henderson Land fell 1.82 percent to 64.8 HK dollars. Hutchison edged down 0.28 percent to 87.9 HK dollars. Sino Land dropped 1.17 percent to 25.35 HK dollars. Hang Lung slumped 2.31 percent to 31.3 HK dollars.
The H-shares index, which was composed of companies registered on the Chinese mainland, lost 202.56 points, or 1.21 percent, to 16,535.17.
Oil sectors were mixed. PetroChina, the largest oil producer in China, went down 0.55 percent to 14.52 HK dollars. Sinopec, the largest oil refiner in Asia, plunged 2.25 percent to 10.42 HK dollars. CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil producer, gained 0.65 percent to 12.48 HK dollars.
China's Banking and financials were lower over fears of further tightening macro control measures to cool the economy. ICBC, China's largest lender, fell 1.15 percent to 6 HK dollars. CCB, the second largest bank in China, dropped 1.75 percent to 7.31 HK dollars. Bank of China lost 1.38 percent to 4.28 HK dollars.
China Life, or the country's largest life insurer, slumped 1.96 percent to 42.6 HK dollars. Ping An dived 3.05 percent to 87.35 HK dollars.
China Unicom gained 0.4 percent to 15.32 HK dollars on the back of assets injection from its parent company.
(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2007)
