Hong Kong shares lower on continued credit concerns; China stocks down UPDATE

Hong Kong shares lower on continued credit concerns; China stocks down UPDATE

	Published : Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:05 By : Agencies Print this Story

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices were lower on continued worries over global credit problems and concerns over further austerity measures in China.

Dealers said an expected technical rebound from the two previous day's sharp declines failed to materialize. Instead, investors were in a cautious pre-weekend mood, locking in gains and holding on to their cash.

At 10.50 am, the Hang Seng index was down 77.93 points or 0.28 pct at 27,666.52, off a low of 27,484.13 and a high of 27,724.14.

Turnover was 28.18 bln hkd.

'The market sentiment remained weak, with China-related stocks leading losses. Investors are also worried about subprime woes and global credit problems after the Fed announced a coordinated exercize by central banks to inject funds into the credit markets,' said Matthew Kwok, research head at Tanrich Securities.

Kwok said investors had yet to be convinced by the central banks' initiative.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam also warned yesterday that some Hong Kong banks, which he did not identify, could report losses related to the subprime mortgage debacle in the US.

Castor Pang, strategist at Sun Hung Kai Financial, said Yam's warning triggered yesterday's sharp falls and put a further damper on sentiment.

Among major China blue chips, China Mobile was down 0.2 hkd or 0.15 pct at 137.2, China Life was down 0.55 hkd or 1.33 pct at 40.9, China Construction Bank fell 0.11 hkd or 1.58 pct to 6.86, China Shenhua was down 1.15 hkd or 2.47 pct at 45.35.

PetroChina was up 0.04 hkd or 0.28 pct at 14.52.

China financials and properties were also lower on concerns about further credit tightening measures to rein in inflation and growth in China.

ICBC was down 0.1 hkd or 1.69 pctat 5.82, Bank of China down 0.02 hkd or 0.5 pct at 3.95, Bank of Communications down 0.14 hkd or 1.24 pct at 11.18, China Merchants Bank down 0.9 hkd or 2.67 pct at 32.85.

Among China property companies, Agile Property was down 0.92 hkd or 6.46 pct at 13.32, Guangzhou R&F was down 1.1 hkd or 4.02 pct at 26.25, Shenzhen Investment was down 0.27 hkd or 4.82 pct at 5.33, and Beijing Capital Land was down 0.29 hkd or 5.5 8 pct at 4.91.

Other major blue chips were also lower, with HSBC down 0.2 hkd or 0.15 pct at 133.0, HKEx down 2.2 hkd or 0.97 pct at 223.8, Hang Seng Bank down 2.1 hkd or 1.35 pct at 153.6, Bank of East Asia down 1.0 hkd or 1.94 pct at 50.55, and BOC Hong Kong down 0.4 hkd or 1.84 pct at 21.3.

Local properties, however, were higher after recent losses, with the sectoral index rising 369.72 points or 1.01 pct at 37,021.51.

Cheung Kong was up 1.6 hkd or 1.15 pct at 141.0, Henderson Land was up 1.05 hkd or 1.45 pct at 73.55, Sun Hung Kai was up 2.4 hkd or 1.52 pct at 160.6, Sino Land was up 0.85 hkd or 3.28 pct at 26.8, and Hang Lung Properties was up 0.25 hkd or 0.73 pct at 34.5.

New listing Anton Oilfield fell sharply below its initial public offering price on its first day of trading.

It was at 1.66 hkd, down 11.7 pct from an IPO price of 1.88.

China Railway was down 0.26 hkd or 3.0 pct at 8.42, China Communications Construction was down 0.15 hkd or 0.7 pct at 21.35, Jiangxi Copper was down 0.42 hkd or 2.14 pct at 19.2, and CNOOC was down 0.18 hkd or 1.42 pct at 12.54.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises index was down 259.15 points or 1.59 pct at 16,072.93.

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