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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (60938)	2/25/2002 3:41:42 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Hong Kong stocks fall as local economy woes drag Monday February 25, 1:43 PM sg.news.yahoo.com HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks were down by midday on Monday as worries over the sputtering local economy erased initial gains following a modest rise on Wall Street. The benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 1.62 percent at 10,491.84 by the midday break, extending a 2.71 percent fall last week. The index had opened fractionally higher. Shares of global banking giant HSBC Holdings, the largest HSI constituent, slid 0.58 percent to HK$85.25 following the release of worse than expected Hong Kong economic data last week. Nearly 38 percent of HSBC's pre-tax profit in 2000 came from Hong Kong, which is teetering on the brink of its second recession in four years. "People are also worried about HSBC's corporate results next week which could show increasing levels of bad debts in Hong Kong," said Eric Wong, market strategist at Dao Heng Securities. Results by HSBC's global rival Standard Chartered , which also derives a substantial portion of its revenues from Hong Kong, showed a sharp increase in bad debt levels, providing an indication of what to expect when HSBC's own full year results come out next week. Analysts on average are expecting the bank to post an 18 percent drop in 2001 earnings.