Hong Kong's stock market closed lower the third day in row on Wednesday on profit-taking in China Mobile and other China-related companies, following a series of record highs of the benchmark Hang Seng Index the last whole week.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 98.01 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 21,705.56 after trading between 21,562.00 and 21,800.49 during the session, with an increased total market turnover of 78.78 billion HK dollars.

Three of the four major stock categories lost ground. The Finance went down 10.39 points, or 0.03 percent to close at 33,450.96. The Properties dropped 149.79 points, or 0.59 percent to close at 25,354.13. The Commerce and Industry fell 120.58, or 0.98 percent to close at 12,197.12. The Utilities, the only gainer, rose 572.38 points, or 1.65 percent to close at 35,316.03.

China Mobile fell 1.6 percent to 83.45 HK dollars, losing its short-lived position as the biggest stock in Hong Kong by market capitalization, after it nudged ahead of HSBC for the first time Tuesday.

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HSBC fell 0.8 percent Wednesday to 143 HK dollars.

Other mainland firms also fell. Sinopec dropped for a third straight day following the surprise resignation of its chairman, Chen Tonghai, over the weekend for personal reasons. The Asia's largest refiner by capacity ended 0.7 percent lower at 8.76 HK dollars.

CNOOC slipped 1.63 percent to 8.46 HK dollars and Petrochina fell 0.7 percent to 11.34 HK dollars.

Despite the declines, investment bank UBS remained optimistic about the outlook for H shares, putting its 12-month target for the Hang Seng China Enterprise Index at 13,000, which ended down 0.02 percent at 11,914.53 Wednesday.

Shun Tak Holdings rose 1.8 percent to end at 11.02 HK dollars after the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate said it will buy the 75 percent that it does not own in a Macao property project for a total of 6.87 billion HK dollars. Analysts said the deal will be positive for Shun Tak in the long term, because it raises the company's exposure to Macao's buoyant property market.

Analysts said they see little chance of a solid reversal in the near term in the absence of factors to counter the downward momentum.

"The market is in a correction phase with investors locking in profits after recent gains, but selling pressure has eased off a bit," said Castor Pang, a strategist at Sun Hung Kai Research Ltd.

The correction follows a 982-point surge and successive record highs in the benchmark index last week on bullishness about the Chinese economy.

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