Art,
Just saw this press release.
HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks could fall on Monday led by property stocks on worries that prices in the moribund sector have yet to show a pulse, and by China's two cellular phone operators on concerns over slowing growth.
"The Hang Seng Index could see-saw around current levels, but Cheung Kong and China Mobile could make it drop initially towards the 10,800 level," said Ben Kwong, associate director at KGI Asia Ltd.
On Wall Street, the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.79 percent on Friday while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 2.79 percent, on weak results from bellwethers Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM).
This despite economic data showing improving consumer sentiment and a narrower trade deficit in the United States, Hong Kong's second biggest export market after mainland China. U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
Wall Street's poor performance could send Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index down towards the 10,500 mark this week, retesting a level not seen since mid-November, and extending Friday's drop of 0.37 percent to 10,972.96. The index lost 1.73 percent last week.
Property stocks may lead the market lower after developer giant Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd said it will offer 26 flats of its Banyan Garden residential development at the average price of HK$2,988 (US$383) per square foot, about 15 percent below analysts' expectations.
Cheung Kong shares slipped 0.97 percent on Friday to end at HK$76.75. But as at Thursday's close the stock had already slumped some 25 percent over the past 12 months.
Also likely to dent the market is China Mobile (Hong Kong) , the mainland's top cellular phone operator and the second biggest stock on the Hong Kong bourse, after it announced a slower than expected increase in its subscriber base.
China Mobile said on Sunday that its subscriber base totaled 69.2 million as of December 20, an increase of 2.6 percent from a month earlier.
Of the 1.76 million new customers, 1.67 million chose pre-paid calling plans, which typically generate less revenue than contract calling plans.
Investors in China Mobile and its lone rival China Unicom Ltd have grown concerned that the furious rate of growth in China's mobile phone market -- the world's largest -- is slowing.
Shares in China Mobile and China Unicom are down 47.52 percent and 28.76 percent, respectively, over the past 52 weeks. |
