Hong Kong shares lower in early trade; oil stocks hit by crude price drop UPDATE

Hong Kong shares lower in early trade; oil stocks hit by crude price drop UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 17 Jan 2007 04:16 By : Agencies Print this Story

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices were lower in early trade on profit-taking in blue chips, oil stocks and other China-related counters following recent gains, dealers said.

Oil stocks came under pressure after crude prices fell near to 51 usd a barrel on news that Saudi Arabia has said that there may be no need for further production cuts, they said.

Wall Street's mixed performance overnight also kept some investors sidelined.

At 10.20 am, the Hang Seng Index was down 50.75 points or 0.25 pct at 19,977.20, off a low of 19,841.16 and high of 20,011.31.

Turnover was 9.59 bln hkd.

'The market continued to consolidate after US stocks closed mixed overnight,' said Ben Kwong, research head KGI Asia.

'Oil stocks dropped on falling oil prices, while disappointing (fourth-quarter) performance of Intel could hurt local technology counters,' he said.

Intel announced last night that its fourth-quarter to December profit fell 39 pct as the world's largest chip maker continued to pay for a massive restructuring and other streamlining efforts. Investors were also disappointed by the company's earnings forecast for the current year.

Kwong said he expects the local benchmark index to trade in the 19,900-20,100 range in the near term.

Among oil counters, PetroChina was down 0.22 hkd or 2.24 pct at 9.60, Sinopec Corp down 0.05 hkd or 0.77 pct at 6.47 and CNOOC lost 0.03 hkd or 0.44 pct at 6.73.

Semiconductor and technology stocks were flat to lower after Intel results, with SMIC unchanged at 1.29 hkd, Solomon Systech flat at 1.73 hkd and ASM Pacific down 0.90 hkd or 1.94 pct at 45.60.

China financials were lower on profit-taking, with China Construction Bank falling 0.05 hkd or 1.02 pct to 4.87, BoComm down 0.15 hkd or 1.67 pct at 8.81 and ICBC down 0.03 hkd or 0.63 pct at 4.71.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was down 111.81 points or 1.12 pct at 9,905.96.

Local banks also were lower, with HSBC down 0.70 hkd or 0.50 pct at 139.90, Hang Seng Bank down 0.60 hkd or 0.54 pct at 111.30 and Bank of East Asia down 0.30 hkd or 0.64 pct at 46.40.

Among properties, Cheung Kong lost 1.10 hkd or 1.09 pct to 100.10, Henderson Land was down 1.0 hkd or 2.07 pct at 47.20 and Sino Land down was 0.26 hkd or 1.40 pct at 18.32.

The property sector index was down 339.05 points or 1.36 pct at 24,518.31.

Elsewhere, Huabao International was down 0.252 hkd or 5.13 pct at 4.66 after its major shareholder sold shares in the company worth 1.26 bln hkd.

Airlines were higher on the drop in oil prices, with Cathay gaining 0.40 hkd or 1.97 pct to 20.75 and South China Airlines up 0.17 hkd or 4.37 pct at 4.06.

Air China rose 0.17 hkd or 3.02 pct to 5.79 and China Eastern Airlines was up 0.06 hkd or 2.6 pct at 2.35.

(1 usd = 7.8 hkd)

leonora.walet@xfn.com

lw/rc