HK stocks lose 18,000-point mark
Updated: 2011-10-21 09:55
(Xinhua)
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HONG KONG-- Hong Kong stocks fell and lost the 18,000-point mark on Thursday, tracking losses among regional markets, amid investors' renewed fears over the Eurozone debt crisis.
The benchmark Hang Seng index fell 326.12 points or 1.78 percent, to close at 17,983.10, after trading between a day high of 18,198.12 and a day low of 17,782.00 points.
Turnover totaled HK$52.8 billion ($6.79 billion) compared with Wednesday's HK$52.8 billion.
The properties sub-index, which covers 7 blue chips of the Hang Seng Index, lost 604.88 points or 2.63 percent to end at 22,363.20. The finance sub-index, which consists of 11 blue chips, lost 433. 32 points, or 1.76 percent, to end at 24,196.81 points. The commerce and industry sub-index shed 206.10 points, or 1.87 percent, to 10,841.95 points.
All the seven property heavyweights suffered losses on Thursday, after Hong Kong's local developer, Sun Hung Kai, won the tender for the development project above the West Rail Nam Cheong Station in Hong Kong with a much-lower-than-expected bid of HK$11.8 billion amid cool market. There were also reports saying that some Hong Kong's banks had suspended mortgage loans for personal house buyers.
Shares of Cheung Kong Holding, a powerful HK-based developer controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, fell 1.99 percent to HK$88.65.
Sun Hung Kai Property shed 2.12 percent to HK$97.2. Shares of Henderson Land, another major developer in Hong Kong, lost 2.56 percent to end at HK$38.05. Hang Lung Properties edged down 1 percent to HK$25.5.
China Resources Land, a mainland-focused developer, tumbled 6.7 percent to HK$9.46 per share. China Overseas Land, another mainland-focused developer, fell 3.24 percent to HK$11.96.
Financial blue chips also fell in the day.
Banking giant and market bellwether HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 1.49 percent to end at HK$62.95. HSBC unit and one of Hong Kong's local bank Hang Seng Bank fell 1.88 percent to HK$93.95.
Shares of another Hong Kong's major bank, Bank of East Asia, fell 2.14 percent to HK$25.15. Local bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing lost 2.75 percent to HK$113.3.
Shares of the ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, lost 1.21 percent to HK$4.07. China Construction Bank went down one percent to HK$5.07. Bank of China lost 1.5 percent to HK$2.63. BOC Hong Kong, an unit of Bank of China, lost 3 percent to end at HK$17.68.
Two major insurers suffered heavy losses in the day, after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the country's top insurance regulator, said Wednesday it would further increase the threshold for insurers to issue subordinated bonds, to reduce insurers' default risk.
Shares of China Life, one of the world's largest life insurers by market value, plunged 6.68 percent to close at HK$17.6. Ping An Insurance, China's second largest insurer, fell 3.21 percent to end at HK$49.8.
Shares of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers which accounts for the second largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, fell 1.25 percent to HK$75.25.
Mainland's oil companies were also major losers of the day. China's largest oil and gas producer PetroChina lost 2.58 percent to HK$9.45. China's top refiner Sinopec lost 1.38 percent, to close at HK$7.13. CNOOC, the HK-listed unit of China's National Offshore Oil Corporation, lost 3 percent to HK$12.78.
HK-based Esprit, a clothing retailer which heavily relies on wholesale operations in Europe, was the worst-performing blue chip in the day, with its shares plunging 7.75 percent to HK$10.48.