Hong Kong: Shares down on profit-taking pressure

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong shares edged down on Friday as investors took profits, remaining cautious over the state of China's economy after the brief filip given by the central bank loosening liquidity earlier this week.

The market has quickly digested news of the reduction in Chinese banks reserve requirement ratio (RRR) earlier this week, but there is some anticipation that further monetary easing will be needed to boost the economy, analysts said.

"Investors were cautious and waiting for further rate cuts from the mainland," said Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi in Hong Kong.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.4 per cent, to 24,679.39, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.8 per cent, to 11,697.32 points.

Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were China National Culture Group Ltd, up 8.9 per cent at HK$0.12, South East Group Ltd, up 16.7 per cent at HK$0.35 and Bank Of China, down 1.6 per cent to HK$4.33.

Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.03 billion yuan (US$4.81 million) of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.

Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.4 billion shares.

REUTERS