HK stocks fall for third consecutive day

Hong Kong shares fell for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, as the market kept quiet with no clear direction over uncertainties including euro zone's debt issue.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index edged down 25.15 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 19,471.80 on Wednesday after trading between 19,372.13 and 19,656.22 during the session.

Turnover totaled at 55.3 billion HK dollars (7.09 billion U.S. dollars), up from Tuesday's 49.52 billion HK dollars (6.36 billion U.S. dollars).

Analysts expected the index to trade in a fairly wide range of 18,800 to 20,600 in the next few weeks.

Among blue chips, Esprit made largest decline at 3.3 percent to 41.90 HK dollars on concerns over its large presence in Europe and persistent worries about sovereign debt in the euro zone. The company derives 84 percent of its revenue from the region.

Chalco, China's top aluminum producer, continued to weight on the index's decline by falling 2.2 percent to 6.20 HK dollars. The company lost 4.66 percent on Tuesday.

Shares of Prudential rose 1.9 percent to 64.70 HK dollars after the U.K. insurer said it was withdrawing from an agreement to buy AIG's Asian life insurance unit AIA Group Ltd.

Bank of East Asia finished flat at 28.45 HK dollars, down from an intraday high of 29.60 HK dollars.

XinAo Gas, the largest Hong Kong-listed Chinese piped-gas distributor by market capitalization, dropped 11.4 percent to 16. 84 HK dollars.

HSBC Holdings rose 1.49 percent to 71.45 HK dollars.

HKEX fell 1.18 percent to 117.5 HK dollars.

Chinese mainland's property stocks moved differently after they dropped across the board Tuesday on expectation of property-market cooling measures in the mainland.

China Overseas fell 1.09 percent to 14.48 HK dollars. China Res Land rose 2.44 percent to 14.3 HK dollars. Shimao Property rose 2.48 percent to 11.56 HK dollars after it recorded an 11-percent decrease in the sales for the first 5 moths.

China's major oil companies also continued to lose. PetroChina slid 0.71 percent to 8.34 HK dollars. Sinopec Corp fell 1.65 percent to 5.98 HK dollars.

Source: Xinhua