HK stocks close 0.78 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks Thursday fell 168.29 points, or 0.78 percent, tracking losses on Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Hang Seng Index finished at 21,380.99 points after trading between 21,428.50 and 21,325.56. Turnover fell to 60. 53 billion HK dollars (about 7.8 billion U.S. dollars) from Wednesday's 70.41 billion HK dollars. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 109.31 points, or 0.92 percent, to close at 11,714.29. All of the four sub-indices lost ground, as the Finance sub- index became the biggest loser, sliding 1.12 percent, followed by the Properties, decreasing 0.93 percent, the Commerce and Industry, 0.42 percent, the Utilities, 0.13 percent. Heavyweight HSBC fell 1.54 percent to close at 70.15 HK dollars. China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, dropped 0.55 percent to 81.20 HK dollars. The Chinese mainland lenders moved down. ICBC, China's largest bank by market value, fell 0.71 percent to close at 5.59 HK dollars; CCB, the country's second largest lender by market capitalization, lost 1.21 percent to close at 6.51 HK dollars; BOC, one of the "big four" lost 1.18 percent at 3.35 HK dollars. Insurer China Life moved up 0.21 percent at 24.35 HK dollars, Ping An lost 1.32 percent at 67.45 HK dollars. Local developers ended mixed. Cheung Kong plunged 2.79 percent to 111.40 HK dollars. Henderson Land Development fell 1.86 percent to 47.45 HK dollars. Sun Hung Kai Properties added 0.17 percent to 119.50 HK dollars. As for energy stocks, Sinopec retreated 0.57 percent to close at 8.8 HK dollars, China Resources Power lowered 1.46 percent to 14.82 HK dollars, CNOOC fell 1.25 percent to 17.38 HK dollars, PetroChina decreased 0.34 percent to 11.56 HK dollars. (7.756 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)