Losses of H-share heavyweights weigh down HK stocks

Hong Kong shares fell on Wednesday owing to poor performance of shares of mainland's heavyweights as investors were worried over the mainland's economy amid the central government's tightening measures.

The benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 365.96 points, or 1. 83 percent, to end at 19,578.98, after trading between a day high of 19,785.86 and a day low of 19,546.22 points.

The H-share index, which tracks the overall performance of 44 major Chinese mainland State-owned enterprises listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, plunged 2.64 percent, or 301.59 points, to end at 11,124.59 points.

The turnover totaled 58.52 billion HK dollars (7.5 billion U.S. dollars) compared with Tuesday's 57.67 billion HK dollars.

The mainland's two leading oil companies, Sinopec and PetroChina, both of which are among the 43 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index, fell 2.18 percent and 2.46 percent, respectively. Sinopec ended at 5.84 HK dollars per share while PetroChina closed at 8.31 HK dollars.

Another oil firm CNOOC, the HK-listed unit of China's National Offshore Oil Corp., tumbled 4.26 percent to 12.14 HK dollars.

Mainland's commodity firms also suffered losses. Chalco, China' s top aluminum producer, plunged 5.89 percent to end at 6.23 HK dollars. Major coal producer China Shenhua, also one of the 43 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index, edged down 0.67 percent to 29.75 HK dollars.

Mainland's financial shares also went down in the day. Shares of the ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, edged down 0.83 percent to 5.51 HK dollars.

China Construction Bank, one of the country's four largest State-owned banks, lost 1.91 percent to 6.17 HK dollars. Another major lender, Bank of China, fell 1.25 percent to 3.94 HK dollars.

China Life, one of the world's largest life insurer by market value, fell 2.04 percent to 33.60 HK dollars per share. Shares of Ping An went down 1.72 percent to 59.95 HK dollars.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers, edged down 0.87 percent to 74.35 HK dollars. Shares of the HSBC, one of the world's biggest banks, lost 1.67 percent to end at 72.15 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 7.799 HK dollars)

Source: Xinhua