Hong Kong shares fell Monday led by China Mobile which will have its weighting cut in a reshuffle of the city's benchmark index. Property shares also dropped on concerns about delays in U.S. interest rate cuts.
The blue chip Hang Seng Index fell 84.25 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 20,593.41 points.
Analysts expected the benchmark index could fall further this week ahead of next week's Lunar New Year holiday.
"The market is likely to consolidate in the next few days. There's no fresh news likely to come out so people are taking some profits out," said Ernie Hon, senior quantitative analyst at ICEA Securities.
China Mobile fell 1.6 percent to HK$75.20 after HSI Services announced on Friday the addition of China Life Insurance and mainland banking giant Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to the blue-chip gauge.
China's biggest mobile operator by subscribers was also hurt by speculation that Vodafone Group will sell its 3.3 percent stake to help fund a US$11.1 billion purchase of a 67 percent stake in an Indian cell phone firm from Hutchison Telecommunications International.
Hutchison Telecoms was suspended from trading pending an announcement about the deal.
Hong Kong property developers dropped after three Federal Reserve officials warned Friday they stood ready to raise rates if U.S. economic growth was stronger than expected.
Sun Hung Kai Properties dropped 1.7 percent to HK$96 and Cheung Kong Holdings fell 1 percent to HK$105.40 as Hong Kong interest rates tend to track U.S. rates due to a linked currency.
Turnover totaled HK$46.29 billion (US$5.92 billion; euro 4.56 billion), down from HK$48.89 billion Friday.
source news : biz.yahoo.com
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