Hong Kong stocks dropped 222.33 points, or 1.15 percent, to close at 19,192.45 points on Wednesday, tracking losses on Wall Street overnight. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 19,060.16 and 19, 360.80. Turnover totaled 60.70 billion HK dollars (about 7.81 billion U.S. dollars). The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 1.33 percent, or 108. 91 points, to close at 8,061.71 points.
All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Finance sub-index fell the most at 1.37 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry at 1.14 percent, the Properties at 0.84 percent, the Utilities at 0.08 percent. Energy shares slid, as a result of the sharp cut in oil price. Petro China, China's largest oil and gas producer, lost 2.12 percent to close at 5.07 HK dollars, CNOOC shed 3.04 percent to 7. 98 HK dollars, while Sinopec lowered 2.73 percent to 4.28 HK dollars. Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 0.92 percent to close at 48.7 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks, slid 2.79 percent to close at 24.35 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX ended 0.58 percent lower at 172.3 HK dollars. Standard Chartered tumbled 6.28 percent to 44.75 HK dollars after the report of its first annual loss since 1989.
Local developers closed lower generally. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers by market value, closed at 86.7 HK dollars, down 0.97 percent. Henderson Land lost 0.82 percent to 42.35 HK dollars. CKH Holdings climbed 0.16 percent to 95.55 HK dollars.
Mainland-based financial stocks went down. Bank of China fell 0. 68 percent to close at 2.94 HK dollars. China Construction Bank closed 1.07 percent lower at 4.61 HK dollars. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest lender, moved down 1.50 percent to 3.9388 HK dollars.
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