HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks dropped 325.07 points, or 1.43 percent, to close on Tuesday at 22,401.7 points.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 22,339.69 and 22,534.92. Turnover totaled 82.15 billion HK dollars (10.6 billion U.S. dollars).
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 191.67 points, or 1.82 percent, to 10,314.74 points.
All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index dropped the most at 2.02 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry at 1.51 percent, the Utilities at 1.31 percent and the Finance at 1.23 percent.
Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, advanced 0.08 percent to 61.9 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, fell 2.93 percent to close at 28.15 HK dollars.
Local bourse operator HKEX edged down 0.28 percent to 212 HK dollars.
China Mobile, China’s dominant mobile carrier, dropped 0.6 percent to 90.65 HK dollars. China Unicom, another Chinese telecom giant, fell 1.41 percent to 9.77 HK dollars.
Local property stocks were generally down. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong’s largest property developer by market value, fell 0.71 percent to 97.5 HK dollars. Henderson Land lost 2.69 percent to 47.1 HK dollars. CKH Holdings slid 1.36 percent to 101.9 HK dollars.
Mainland-based financial stocks closed down. Bank of China retreated 1.96 percent to close at 3.51 HK dollars. China Construction Bank dropped 1.61 percent to 5.5 HK dollars. Bank of Communication went down 1.57 percent to 5.65 HK dollars. ICBC fell 1.43 percent to 4.81 HK dollars.
As for energy stocks, China’s top refiner Sinopec dropped 2.2 percent to 5.33 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country’s largest oil and gas producer, fell 2.01 percent to 5.84 HK dollars. CNOOC moved down 1.83 percent to 8.6 HK dollars.
