Hong Kong stocks dipped 38.47 points, or 0.27 percent, to close at 14,377.44 on Friday, on profit-taking.
Turnover weakened to 45.14 billion HK dollars (5.82 billion U.S. dollars from 55.52 billion HK dollars (7.17 billion U.S. dollars) on Thursday.
Profit-taking in China Mobile and electronics parts maker Foxconn following sharp gains last week led Hong Kong shares lower, outweighing gains in index heavyweight HSBC.
The index fell for four consecutive days this week to lose 4.4 percent on the week, after ending last week higher at 15,042.81.
Peter Lai, director of DBS Vickers, said he expects profit- taking to persist, and the index may test 13,000 next week. "While many investors have over the past week snapped up stocks on hopes that U.S. President-elect Obama will introduce more measures to revive the economy, he won't be able to change things around in a single day," Lai said.
The index rallied 7.8 percent in the first two trading sessions of the new year, before profit-taking emerged Tuesday. "The reality is 2009 won't be a year of recovery for stocks, and we can expect a slew of poor earnings in February and March."
China Mobile dragged the market lower, falling 0.9 percent to 75.30 HK dollars as Beijing's issuance of 3G licenses rekindled concerns about intensified competition, which were exacerbated by media reports about weak consumer response to 3G services.
Foxconn International was the worst performing blue chip, plunging 15.3 percent to 3.20 HK dollars on profit-taking.
Bank of Communications bucked the downtrend, rising 0.4 percent to 5.65 HK dollars after HSBC said it doesn't plan to reduce its 19.01 percent stake in the Chinese bank.
HSBC inched higher to end 0.9 percent higher at 74.70 HK dollars. Air China fell 5.5 percent to 2.23 HK dollars, on concerns its fuel hedging losses, like rival Cathay Pacific's, would widen.
Lenovo ended 9.4 percent lower at 1.73 HK dollars, extending its 26 percent decline Thursday following its profit warning. Retailer Sa Sa also bucked the downtrend to end 11.9 percent higher at 2.07 HK dollars on higher-than-expected sales in the third-quarter.
"Basically there's not much direction," said Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. "People still fear the market will go down. All the economic figures show the global economy is in a mess, it's not going to climb out anytime soon." (One U.S. dollar = 7.7495 HK dollars)
Source: Xinhua
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