HONG KONG, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong shares ended 0.82 percent lower on Thursday, with commodity and financial firms leading the fall.
Hong Kong stocks went down 195.22 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 23,614.89 on Thursday. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 23,863.93 and 23,934.07. Turnover totaled 71.42 billion HK dollars (about 9.17 billion U.S. dollars) compared with Wednesday's 75.13 billion HK dollars.
In Hong Kong, commodities and financial firms led declines, tracking weakness in regional peers.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index went down 96.43 points, or 0.74 percent, to close at 12,992.50.
Three of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Finance sub- index decreased 0.90 percent, the Commerce and Industry fell 0.92 percent, the Properties fell 0.56 percent, while the Utilities increased 0.27 percent.
Heavyweight HSBC Holdings fell 1.36 percent to 83.70 HK dollars. Hang Seng Bank went down 0.54 percent to 128.0 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia ended 0.43 percent lower to 34.50 HK dollars.
For Chinese financial firms, ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, decreased 0.64 percent to 6.24 HK dollars. Bank of China ended 0.24 percent lower at 4.23 HK dollars.
Cathay Pacific decreased 2.08 percent to 112.90 HK dollars after Tuesday's big surge, concerning the rising oil prices.
Continuing the downward trend, offshore oil producer CNOOC fell 1.31 percent to 18.08 HK dollars, while China's biggest energy producer PetroChina decreased 0.36 percent lower to 10.94 HK dollars.
China Coal Energy was down 0.9 percent at 11.68 HK dollars, and China Shenhua Energy fell 0.7 percent to 34.20 HK dollars.
Majority of Hong Kong property developers lost ground. Cheung Kong Holding, a conglomerate owned by Li Ka-shing, slipped 0.32 percent to 124.90 HK dollars. As shares of Sino Land moved 1.39 percent down to close at 14.10 HK dollars and Hang Lung Property fell 0.74 percent to close at 33.65 HK dollars.
Bucking the downward trend, Hutchison Whampoa rose 0.8 percent to 92.75 HK dollars, boosted by overwhelming response for its unit 's planned IPO in Singapore.
Among other blue chips, HKEX, the city's sole bourse operator, fell 0.29 percent after Tuesday's rise to 171.00 HK dollars. And Hutchinson Whampoa climbed 0.33 percent to 92.40 HK dollars.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers, closed 0.80 percent lower at 74.85 HK dollars, while China Unicom decreased 1.18 percent to 13.38 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.790 HK dollars)
