Hong Kong Stocks: Shares Finish Lower
Dow Jones Newswires
HONG KONG -- Shares closed lower Thursday as the market continued to focus on global concerns about the funding situation for telecom stocks and shrugged off the appointment of a new financial secretary.
The Hang Seng Index fell 104.05 to 15756.37. Volume totaled 6.66 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The recent trend of investors turning their attention to China-related shares also prevailed, part of a larger move of investors reducing exposure to markets outside the Greater China region, one analyst noted. One reason for this is the uncertainty of whether the U.S. markets, and Nasdaq especially, has bottomed out, he said.
Miles Remington, head of sales at SG Securities, also noted that after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's speech earlier in the week investors are now trying to digest the idea that "we won't see the kind of rate cuts the market had hoped for."
He added that the current ambiguity on Wall Street is also keeping many players sidelined. Given that there is also a lack of domestic news, the weak trading activity is likely to continue until after the Presidents' Day holiday in the U.S. Monday, he said.
Pacific Century CyberWorks was the worst performer among the blue chips, shedding 25 Hong Kong cents to HK$4.65 after experiencing heavy short-selling in the past few sessions.
Cable & Wireless has still not said anything about what it will do with the 7.65% stake in the company it's allowed to sell from next week and that remains a heavy burden on the share price, dealers said.
Other telecom stocks also fell following a weak trading debut of Orange, the mobile unit of France Telecom, after its pre-listing offering price had already been slashed. This has renewed concerns about where operators will be able to obtain funding since banks have already turned cautious.
China Mobile fell 40 Hong Kong cents to HK$47.40, Hutchison Whampoa shed HK$1.25 to HK$95.50 and China Unicom dropped 20 cents to HK$12.15.
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