Weak property heavyweights weigh down Hong Kong stocks

Hong Kong shares ended lower on Monday, owing to weak performance of property heavyweights. The benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 265.38 points, or 1. 44 percent, to end at 18,225.85 points, after trading between a day high of 18,293.94 and a day low of 18,054.23 points. Turnover totaled 51.17 billion HK dollars (about 6.57 billion U. S. dollars) compared with last Friday' s 52.95 billion HK dollars. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 231.58 points, or 2. 33 percent, to close at 9,725.82. Four sub-indices ended mixed. The Properties sub-index, which covers 7 blue chips of the Hang Seng Index, lost 2.73 percent. The Finance fell 1.71 percent and the Commerce & Industry shed 1.09 percent, while the Utilities sub-index rose 0.16 percent. Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, fell 0.844 percent to close at 58.75 HK dollars, and its local unit Hang Seng Bank lost 1.988 percent to 91.2 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, another Hong Kong's major bank, ended at 26.55 HK dollars without change, and local bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing shed 1.8 percent to 120 HK dollars. As for Hong Kong developers, Hang Lung Properties fell 4.97 percent to 23.9 HK dollars. Henderson Land, another major developer in Hong Kong, lost 1.027 percent to 38.55 HK dollars, and Cheung Kong Holding, a powerful HK-based developer controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, went down 2.612 percent to 85.75 HK dollars. Mainland-based financial stocks also hurt. China Construction Bank, the country's second largest bank which accounts for the third largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, fell 0.926 percent to 5.35 HK dollars. ICBC,The world's largest bank by market value, lost 3.153 percent at 4.3 HK dollars. Bank of China went down 2. 344 percent at 2.5 HK dollars. Bank of Communications, China's fifth biggest lender measured by assets, fell 2.879 percent to 5. 06 HK dollars China's second largest insurer Ping An fell 3.578 percent at 52.55 HK dollars, and China Life, one of the world's largest life insurers by market value, lost 1.782 percent at 19.84 HK dollars. China's top refiner Sinopec gained 0.502 percent to 8.01 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, fell 0.301 percent to 9.93 HK dollars. CNOOC, the HK-listed unit of China's National Offshore Oil Corp., went down 2.969 percent to 14.38 HK dollars. China's biggest Internet company Tencent Holdings was the best- performing blue chip in the day, with its shares rising 2.264 percent to 153.6 HK dollars. HK-based consumer goods exporter Li & Fung, which manages supply chains for retailers, was the worst-performing blue chip in the day, with its shares falling 5.319 percent to 14.24 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 7.789 HK dollars)