Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index ended lower Thursday after the index hit an all-time high of 23,557.74 in the morning session, dragged on the weakness in regional markets.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 150.49 points, or 0.64 percent, to 23,211.69 after trading between 23,557.74 and 23,127.80 during the session. Turnover totaled 102.31 billion HK dollars, up from 100.50 billion HK dollars the previous day.

All the four major categories lost ground. The Properties plunged 2.05 percent, followed by the Utilities and the Commerce and Industry both at 0.79 percent, and the Finance at 0.07 percent.

Traders expect the index to remain above the psychologically important 23,000 level for the rest of the week, before Monday's July futures expires.

The Hang Seng index hit 23,557.74 at the peak in morning trading, buoyed by overnight gains on Wall Street. But the index pared some of the gains when the Nikkei closed 0.9 percent lower at 17,702.09 on uncertainty over the outcome of Japanese Upper House elections. South Korea's Kospi, fell 2 percent to 1963.54 on profit-taking.

Phillip Asset Management's Y.K. Chan said the 150-point correction in the local market was expected, as the market was overbought "and in need of a breather."

Heavyweight China Mobile, the world's largest wireless operator by subscribers, shed 1.7 percent to 91.7 HK dollars, contributing to nearly 70 percent of the benchmark index's fall.

Banking giant HSBC also dragged the index 0.4 percent lower to 143.2 HK dollars ahead of its results, due out Monday. CLSA said it expects HSBC's net profit to be hurt by worsening subprime loans in the United States and general credit deterioration.

But China's two largest life insurer by premiums, China Life and Ping An, bucked the downtrend after China's insurance regulator revised upward the cap on overseas investment by Chinese insurers to 15 percent from 5 percent. China Life rose 1.4 percent to 33.2 HK dollars and Ping An was up 0.8 percent at 66.3 HK dollars on expectations of higher investment income.

On the six banks front, ICBC, CCB, Bankcomm and CITIC Bank slid 0.33 percent to 0.82 percent. Bank of China remained unchanged. CM Bank shrank 0.7 percent.

Cheung Kong was down 2.79 percent, and Hutchinson Whampoa down 0.64 percent. Other property stocks weakened. Henderson Land, SHK PPT, New World, Sino Land and Hang Lung PPT dipped 0.97 percent to 3.03 percent.

On resource stocks side, PetroChina and Sinopec Corp added 0.33 per cent and 0.96 percent. China Oilfield, on which CLSA and Smith Barney delivered sanguine assessments together, eased 0.68 per cent after gains. China Shenhua and Yanzhou Coal fell 2.48 per cent and 0.57 per cent respectively after JP Morgan raised their target prices, while China Coal receded 2.22 per cent.

Electricity stocks slipped on the news that the five big power generation groups expected coal and electricity price linkage in key regions but SDPC said it was pending observation, Huaneng Power, Beijing Datang, Huadian Power and China Power down 1.63 percent to 2.81 percent.

Steel stocks also retreated in the afternoon. Angang Newsteel, Maanshan Iron and Chongqing Iron lost 2.46 percent to 3.38 percent.

Tiangong Int'l closed at 11.56 HK dollars on debut, up 82 percent from the issue price of 6.35 HK dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27 2007)