HK stocks down on weak US
European telecoms stocks took a beating on Monday, led by losses on UK phone giant Vodafone (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L). The stock fell 3.95 percent on reports it was in talks to buy an Irish mobile phone unit while U.S. corporate earnings jitters compounded the slide.
Overnight, the U.S. Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI - news) fell 0.27 percent to 10,568.43. U.S. stocks had fallen sharply in early trade on lingering concerns about corporate profitability but pared most of its losses by the closing bell as investors picked up bargain stocks.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) dropped 0.16 percent, or 5.45 points, to 3,355.56.
On the Hang Seng, turnover at 11 a.m. was light at HK$2.76 billion. Declines led advances by 183 to 140 while 409 stocks were unchanged.
Shares of global banking group, HSBC Holdings were off 0.46 percent at HK$109 in early trade. Dealers said higher European interest rates may hurt its earnings as the company's business operations are partly based in Europe.
Hong Kong subway operator Mass Transit Railway Corp bucked the market downtrend for the second straight day.
Shares of the territory's commuter railway company were up 2.02 percent at HK$12.60 after hitting a high of HK$12.85. The stock, the most actively traded with a turnover of HK$634 million, has gained 34 percent since its debut last week.
``The MTRC remained a safe-haven for many investors, given that most other stocks were down on Wall Street,'' said Herbert Lau, head of research at Celestial Asia.
China-linked stocks were also faring well. The red-chip index (^HSCC - news) and the H-shares index (^HSCE - news) were up 0.40 percent and 1.04 percent respectively as bargain-hunters picked up stocks which had fallen sharply in the past two weeks.
``The China-linked stocks have held their ground after their recent slide. They had been affected negatively by the possible delay in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) accession,'' said Lau. |
