Hong Kong stocks close 1.28% lower

Hong Kong stocks went down 284.34 points, or 1.28 percent, to close on Monday at 21,976.33 points. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 22,284.56 and 21, 873.87. Turnover totaled 41.65 billion HK dollars (5.37 billion U. S. dollars). The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index ended down 59.17 points, or 0.60 percent, to close at 9,743.29. All four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index dropped the most by 3.23 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry by 1.46 percent, the Utilities by 1.35 percent and the Finance by 0.69 percent. Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, ended down 1.07 percent to 78.25 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, ended down 1.08 percent to 32.15 HK dollars. China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, closed down 0.41 percent to 72.80 HK dollars. Another Chinese telecom giant China Unicom rose 2.74 percent to 12 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX fell 1.07 percent to 139 HK dollars. Among local property stocks, Sun Hung Kai, HK's largest property developer by market value, fell 1.07 percent to 96.95 HK dollars. Cheung Kong properties, controlled by billionaire Li Ka- shing, dived 7.62 percent to 123.60 HK dollars. Henderson Land lost 1.06 percent to 46.65 HK dollars. As for mainland-based financial stocks, Bank of China ended up 0.29 percent to 3.40 HK dollars. Bank of Communications slid 0.83 percent to 4.8 HK dollars. China Construction Bank added 0.19 percent to 5.33 HK dollars. ICBC ended flat at 4.62 HK dollars. As for energy stocks, Sinopec ended down 1.17 percent to 6.76 HK dollars, PetroChina ended down 1.9 percent to 8.77 HK dollars, while CNOOC fell 0.94 to 12.62 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7. 75 HK dollars)