Hong Kong stocks closed lower Thursday, with several major telecom stocks having further declined in the afternoon following reports that China Telecom Corp will relaunch its IPO due to a poor response from international investors.
China Telecom has been scheduled to have listed in New York on Nov. 6 and Hong Kong on Nov. 7.
China Mobile lost 0.50 HK dollars to end at 19.15 and China Unicom lost 0.05 to end at 4.85. Hutchison was down 0.60 at 48.00 and PCCW down 0.02 to 1.10.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed down 119.21 points, or 1.25 percent, at 9,441.25, having fluctuated between 9,625.72 and 9,418.88.
Turnover rose a bit to 4.889 billion HK dollars (US$627 million) from Wednesday's 4.742 billion HK dollars (US$607 million).
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, also known as the H-share index, was shed 6.03 points to end at 1,830.95 while the China Affiliated Corporations Index, or the red-chip index, lost 21.06 points to end at 1,010.71.
The tech-heavy Growth Enterprise Market Index dipped 0.83 points to end at 111.73 with a turnover of 102.597 million HK dollars (US$13 million).
Standard Chartered closed at 87.00 HK dollars in its first-day trading in Hong Kong, above its IPO price of 84.00.
At the end of the trading, Bank of East Asia was 0.05 higher at13.60, Hang Seng Bank 0.75 lower at 84.25, HSBC 0.75 lower at 85.00.
Among the property sector, Cheung Kong was off 0.50 at 51.75, Sun Hung Kai Properties off 0.70 at 48.60, Wheelock flat at 5.25.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2002)
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