Hong Kong shares ended lower on Wednesday, owing to weak performance of Financial heavyweights.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 30.39 points, or 0.13 percent at 22,541.69 after trading between 22,469.18 and 22,635.38 points.
Turnover increased to 73.86 billion HK dollars (about 9.48 billion U.S. dollars) compared with Tuesday'' s 62.63 billion HK dollars.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 17.02 points, or 0. 14 percent to close at 12,587.66 points.
Two of the four sub-indices gained ground. The Properties sub- index and the Utilities sub-index moved up 0.53 percent and 0.27 percent respectively. The Finance slid 0.42 percent, and the Commerce & Industry went down 0.01 percent.
Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 0.706 percent to 77.4 HK dollars and its local unit Hang Seng Bank went down 0.245 percent to 122.3 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, another Hong Kong''s major bank, ended 1.142 percent lower at 30.3 HK dollars. Local bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing went up 0.186 percent to 161.8 HK dollars.
As for mainland-based financial stocks, ICBC, the world''s largest bank by market value, lost 0.333 percent to 5.99 HK dollars. China Construction Bank remained at 6.36 HK dollars. Bank of Communications went up 0.292 percent to 6.88 HK dollars and Bank of China added 0.549 percent to 3.66 HK dollars
Property heavyweights closed higher generally. Cheung Kong Holding, a powerful HK-based developer controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, rose 0.943 percent to 117.8 HK dollars. Sun Hung Kai Property, one of the largest property companies in Asia, added 0. 086 percent to 116.8 HK dollars. Henderson Land, another major developer in Hong Kong, gained 1.122 percent to 49.55 HK dollars, while Hang Lung Properties lost 1.320 percent to 29.9 HK dollars.
The country''s largest oil and gas producer PetroChina added 0. 354 percent to 11.34 HK dollars. China''s top refiner Sinopec lost 0.385 percent to 7.77 HK dollars. The HK-listed unit of China''s National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, moved down 0.575 percent to 17.3 HK dollars.
Cosco Pacific, the HK-listed arm of China''s shipping and transport giant Cosco Group, was the worst-performing blue chip in the day, with its shares falling 2.560 percent to 12.94 HK dollars.
CHALCO was the best-performing blue chip in the day, with its shares rising 5.475 percent to 6.55 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.791 HK dollars)
Source: Xinhua