Hong Kong share prices closed lower yesterday, led by several key index stocks after sentiment was undermined by a weak Wall Street performance, dealers said.

The Hang Seng Index shed 130.26 points, or 1.32 percent, to close at 9,743.23 on turnover of HK$6.23 billion (US$800 million).

"Follow-through interest was obviously lacking after the market reached its highs yesterday. This, coupled with the weaker showing on Wall Street, turned sentiment even more cautious," said Kenny Tang, associate director of research at Tung Tai Securities.

"Nevertheless, technical conditions have improved over recent sessions and there remains sufficient buying support at lows... the downside should be limited," he said.

Support for the benchmark index around the 9,600 points level appeared intact while resistance at 9,900 points would be strong, Tang noted.

Taiwan Stock Witnesses Slight Loss

Taiwan shares fell 1.48 per cent yesterday to the day's lows on profit-taking in selected non-electronics stocks, dealers said.

The weighted index lost 74.41 points at 4,943.29, off a high of 5,082.39, on turnover of NT$137.44 billion (US$3.93 billion), breaking a four-day market upswing, the dealers said.

Losers led winners 452 to 233, with 62 stocks unchanged. Some 68 stocks closed limit-up while 22 were limit-down.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) and United Microelectronics (UMC) led the electronics sector lower following Intel Corp's disappointing first-quarter projections and cut in 2003 capital spending.

The dealers said sentiment was also cautious amid uncertainty over NASDAQ's response to the earnings announcement by Yahoo! and Apple Computer later yesterday.

Nikkei-225 Ends Slightly Lower

Japanese share prices slipped marginally yesterday as a rise in bank stocks on renewed optimism in their chances of survival helped erase most earlier losses caused by a drop on Wall Street, dealers said.

The Nikkei-225 average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange slid 2.58 points, or 0.03 percent, to end at 8,609.17. But the broader Topix index of all first section issues inched up 0.64 points to 856.30.

Decliners led gainers 735 to 575, with 182 stocks unchanged. Volume was estimated at 825 million shares.

On Wednesday, US investment bank Goldman Sachs said it would invest 150.3 billion yen (US$1.3 billion) in Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group preference shares to boost the Japanese lender's weak capital.

(Edited from China Daily January 17, 2003)