Hong Kong stocks tumbled Wednesday along with regional markets after the Wall Street's overnight slashes triggered renewed fears towards a possible recession due to the subprime mortgage in the United States.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened sharply lower at 22,802.83 and headed downwards to its intra-day lowest level 22,686.84 during the morning session. Orders from scoop-up investors narrowed the index losses in the afternoon session before losing 343.16 points or 1.47 percent to close at 23,020.6.
The China Enterprise Index, which tracks the performance of 41 Chinese mainland companies listed in Hong Kong, dropped 260.85 points or 1.87 percent to close Wednesday's trading at 13,688.8.
Turnover shrank to 104.21 billion HK dollars (13.37 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 122.94 billion HK dollars (15.78 billion U. S. dollars).
China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile phone operator and the market's top company measured by capitalization, wend down 0.7 percent to 99.25 HK dollars, pulling down the index by 30.99 points.
HSBC, the market's second largest stock measured by capitalization, fell 1.14 percent to 138.2 HK dollars, evaporating the index the most by 44.74 points.
CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil producer, plunged 3.9 percent to 8.87 HK dollars, dragging the index by 37.66 points.
China Life, the biggest insurer in China, weakened 1.88 percent to 36.45 HK dollars, slashing the index by 20.95 points.
PetroChina, or China's largest oil producer, lost 2.79 percent to 11.14 HK dollars.
Sinopec, Asia's biggest oil refiner, edged down 0.12 percent to 8.36 HK dollars.
Aluminum Corp of China or Chalco, the country's largest aluminum refiner, plummeted 8.41 percent to 20.7 HK dollars, ending two consecutive days of bull run due to massive orders for the stock. Chalco's trading price in the Shanghai Stock Exchange is about twice its price in Hong Kong and investors bought in advance of the funds inflows from China's mainland.
Jiangxi Copper plunged 9.98 percent to 18.32 HK dollars after its bull rush during the past two days over expectations of liquidity inflows from China's mainland.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender, lost 1.22 percent to 4.86 HK dollars.
Bank of China, the country's second largest lender, dropped 1. 79 percent to 3.84 HK dollars.
China Construction Bank, the country's third-largest bank moved down 1.64 percent to 6 HK dollars.(7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua
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