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Friday December 11, 12:01 am Eastern Time
(Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.)
HK stocks end morning sharply lower on Dow woes
HONG KONG, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks ended Friday morning down sharply, shaken by Wall Street's overnight fall, but brokers said there was buying support at lower levels and they did not expect to see the index fall much further.
''The Dow has affected Hong Kong, but I don't think the market is so weak,'' dealer Patrick Ng at DBS Securities said. ''We are seeing some institutions buying blue chips at lower levels.''
The Hang Seng Index tumbled 333.33 points, or 3.23 percent, to end the session at 9,982.11 near its low for the day of 9,956.50.
Turnover was a moderate HK$3.21 billion, up from Thursday morning's HK$2.46 billion. ''Turnover was up, but we did see some buying support,'' Ng said.
Brokers and chartists have been concerned that a sharp increase in volume at this stage of the market's consolidation phase could result in a sharper fall to 8,800 or lower.
The index is undergoing its first consolidation since the government entered the market in mid-August to halt the index's dizzy downward spiral.
The December Hang Seng Index futures contract at the midsession break was 380 points lower at 9,945 on active trade of 15,621 contracts.
The commercial and industrial sector led the market lower along with the finance sector chiefly HSBC Holdings .
HSBC sank HK$6.50, or 3.3 percent, to HK$190.5 on active turnover of HK$453.64 million.
Hutchison Whampoa lost HK$2.25 or 4.15 percent to HK$52.00. Hutchison said on Thursday it would make a profit of about HK$800 million on the sale of its stake in Asia Satellite.
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