Hong Kong stocks went down 386.62 points, or 1.52 percent, to close at 25,063.17 on Friday, on the fall of mainland and regional markets.

Turnover rose to 77.26 billion HK dollars (9.92 billion U.S. dollars) from Thursday's 76.95 billion HK dollars.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 48 points lower, repeatedly dropped after bounding to 25,484, hit a low of 24,911 in the afternoon. Analysts said that the market will be choppy in the near term.

Ping An, the second largest mainland insurer, rose 0.58 percent to 69.9 HK dollars after it said that it would not consider additional A share issuance over the next 6 months.

Ping An said in January it would sell 1.2 billion yuan- denominated A shares and 41.2 billion yuan of convertible bonds with warrants, triggering a major market sell-off that provoked widespread criticism.

Restructuring rumors renewed in mainland telecom industry. China Mobile was down 1.6 percent, China Unicom up 0.255 percent, China Telecom up 1.26 percent, Netcom up 1.39 percent.

Among bank stocks, HSBC was down 1.43 percent, Hang Seng Bank down 1.57 percent, Bank of East Asia down 1.73 percent despite holding increase by its Chairman Li Kwok-po. BOC HK was also down 1.81 percent while StanChart down 1.36 percent.

Property stocks put in mixed shows. Cheung Kong to launch Celestial Heights, Ho Man Tin next week at the fastest was down 0. 74 percent, SHK PPT down 1.81 percent, Henderson Land down 2.19 percent, and New World down 2.44 percent.

The six mainland banks moved lower across the board. CCB, ICBC and Bank of China skidded 1.52 percent to 2.3 percent. Bankcomm and CITIC Bank fell 0.75 percent and 1.24 percent, and CM Bank dived 1.96 percent.

With International oil futures resetting a fresh high, CNOOC, mainland's largest offshore oil producer added 0.43 percent, while PetroChina and Sinopec Corp trimmed 1.97 percent and 3.3 percent.

Aviation stock Cathay Pacific was down 4.19 percent, Air China down 0.52 percent, China South Air down 1.61 percent, and China East Air down 0.3 percent.

Coals stocks close mixed. China Shenhua was down 3.5 percent and China Coal down 1.79 percent but Yanzhou Coal up 1.77 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2008)