Hong Kong: Stocks drop the most in 2 weeks as resources shares tumble

[SHANGHAI] Hong Kong stocks posted their biggest daily percentage decline in two weeks on Friday as resources shares tumbled on sharply weaker oil and commodity prices.

Sentiment was not helped by a bearish stock market in China, where main indexes fell to three-month lows amid lingering worries about economic growth and tighter regulations.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.8 per cent, to 24,476.35, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.6 per cent to 9,926.26 points.

For the week, Hang Seng was down 0.6 per cent, while HSCI lost 0.9 per cent.

Fresh falls in commodities raised concerns about the health of the global economy, while oil prices plunged to five-month lows on Thursday as Opec and other producers appeared to rule out deeper supply cuts to reduce the world's persistent glut of crude.

Indexes tracking energy and material stocks dropped 2.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.

REUTERS