Hong Kong shares fell 239.92 points to open below 21,000 points on Friday but their losses narrowed down in the afternoon before closing down 0.13 percent at 21,024.4.

The benchmark index traded between 21,065.73 and 20,766.46 points, with turnover shrank to 56.41 billion HK dollars from Thursday's 78.69 billion HK dollars.

China Enterprises Index went up 9.23 points, or 0.08 percent, to close at 12,056.48 points.

Among the four major stock categories, the finance sub-index and the commerce and industry were the losers, losing 0.1 percent and 0.32 percent respectively. The utilities rose 0.08 percent, the properties went up 0.37 percent.

Blue-chips closed mixed. Banking giant HSBC Holdings fell 0.73 percent to close at 88.05 HK dollars. Heavyweight China Mobile, by far the largest mobile carrier in the mainland, fell 0.7 percent to 78.3 HK dollars. HKEx, the sole exchange operator in Hong Kong, edged down 0.69 percent, to 143.1 HK dollars.

Local properties also ended mixed. Cheung Kong, the flagship of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, fell 1.37 percent to 97.05 HK dollars. SHK Properties rose 1.43 percent to 113.7 HK dollars. Henderson Land slid 0.9 percent to 49.75 HK dollars.

Mainland-based commercial lenders ended higher in general. Bank of China closed flat at 4.11 HK dollars. ICBC rose 0.51 percent to5.92 HK dollars. CCB moved 0.32 percent up to 6.24 HK dollars.

Chinese insurance shares finished mixed. China Life rose 0.43 percent to 34.6 HK dollars. Ping An fell 0.16 percent to 62.25 HK dollars.

Energy shares closed down, PetroChina dropped 0.99 percent to 9. 02 HK dollars, off-shore oil producer CNOOC lost 0.58 percent to 10.38 HK dollars, while Sinopec Corp fell 0.6 percent to 6.67 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)

Source: Xinhua