CyberWorks tumbles 5pc to end dismal week
REUTERS and BEN KWOK
Last updated at 5.45pm:
Richard Li Tzar-kai's Pacific Century CyberWorks continued its downward spiral on Friday, plunging 5.38 per cent to $3.075 by close of trade.
PCCW'S share price fell to a record low yesterday as investors reacted to the company's announcement on Wednesday of a $6.9 billion loss in the year to December 31.
It finished at $3.225, down 6.7 per cent.
Turnover amounted to $679.5 million, making PCCW the second most active counter in dollar terms.
The blue chip, which incurred huge negative equity after taking over Cable & Wireless HKT last year, fell as much as 14.4 per cent to $2.975 at one stage before rebounding in the afternoon.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed at 12,677 points, down 1.3 per cent.
Suggestions that PCCW - which was added to the Hang Seng Index in August - might be dropped from the blue-chip index because of its negative equity of $14.1 billion circulated around the market, brokers said.
However, HSI Services, which compiles the index, ruled out the possibility of removing the company, the 10th-largest in Hong Kong's stock market.
"Market capitalisation and trading turnover are the two main criteria in selecting companies for the blue-chip index," HSI Service general manager Vincent Kwan Wing-shing said. "We have never kicked out a firm for its negative equity."
PCCW's share price has fallen nearly 80 per cent since the company took over HKT on August 17, effectively wiping out $266 billion in market capitalisation.
Analysts said they were not impressed by the efforts of the company's executives to explain the game plans of its various business units.
"What has the new management really done to the combined PCCW-HKT apart from the new logo and completed financing?" an analyst at Kim Eng Securities asked.
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