Hang Seng Ends Tad Down

Hong Kong stocks closed 0.13 percent lower yesterday, with selling pressure on China Mobile and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp keeping the market in negative territory, dealers said.

The key Hang Seng index lost 12.80 points to close at 9,675.41, on turnover of HK$5.70 billion (US$732 million).

"The market was lifted off lows on the back of buying in some laggards including Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Group shares, CITIC Pacific as well as further gains in China-related stocks," said Patrick Yiu, vice-president of sales at Kingsway Securities.

He said the market would continue to hover around current levels as it built stronger support, with further losses expected to be limited.

Consecutive Rises Stop

Taiwan stocks closed 0.48 percent lower yesterday, snapping five sessions of rises as investors took profits after weakness on Wall Street amid Gateway's profit warning and negative news from Intel, dealers said.

The bell-wether electronics sector was hit by Intel's warning of lacklustre information-technology spending in the first half.

The weighted index closed down 23.20 points at 4,813.73, off a high of 4,867.40 and a low of 4,798.16, on turnover of NT$123.97 billion (US$3.58 billion).

Profit-taking was seen in the non-electronics sectors but construction and plastics attracted buyers.

The construction sector particularly benefited from the authorities' decision to offer an extra NT$200 billion in preferential housing loans.

Nikkei-225 Down Wee Bit

Japanese share prices slipped 0.23 percent yesterday after a drop on Wall Street and concerns over a rise in the yen, dealers said.

The Nikkei-225 average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 19.87 points to end at 8,497.93. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues eased 0.22 points to 839.33.

Decliners led gainers 706 to 613, with 173 stocks unchanged. Trading volume was estimated at a thin 576 million shares.

"The thing that's scary is how low the volumes have been in recent days," said Garry Evans, strategist at HSBC Securities.

"It suggests that people don't know where to move and there's a lack of interest in the market," he said.

(Edited from China Daily January 10, 2003)