Hong Kong stocks close 0.23% higher

Hong Kong stocks went up 51.78 points, or 0.23 percent, to close on Tuesday at 22,578.72 points. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 22,592.36 and 22, 437.38. Turnover totaled 51.46 billion HK dollars (about 6.64 billion U.S.dollars). The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index ended down 43.38 points, or 0.43 percent, to close at 10057.83. All four sub-indices ended higher with the Commerce and Industry closed up 0.11 percent,the Finance ended up 0.37 percent and the Utilities closed up 0.13 percent, the Properties ended up 0.06 percent. The Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, ended up 0.73 percent with 83.3 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, edged up 2.96 percent to 31.35 HK dollars. China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, ended down 0.61 percent to 73.60 HK dollars, while another Chinese telecom giant China Unicom fell 0.77 percent to 10.36 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX moved down 0.48 percent to 123.70 HK dollars. For the local property stocks, Sun Hung Kai, HK's largest property developer by market value, ended down 0.51 percent at 96. 80 HK dollars; Cheung Kong properties, owned by billionaire Li Ka- shing, rose 0.94 percent to 117.8 HK dollars. As for mainland-based financial stocks, China Construction Bank, the country's second largest bank which accounts for the third largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, ended down 0.73 percent with 5.44 HK dollars. ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, moved down 0.41 percent with 4.84 HK dollars. Bank of China ended down 0.30 percent with 3.30 HK dollars. As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec edged down 1. 32 percent to 6.0 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, fell 0.5 percent to 7.9 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.75 HK dollar)