Hong Kong: Shares close down on weak financials, mainland's fall

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong shares edged down on Tuesday, erasing gains from the morning session, dragged down by the financial sector.

Analysts said the Hong Kong market's fall largely stemmed from tumbles on mainland markets, which had their worst day in two weeks. The Shanghai Composite index lost 3 per cent.

Turnover was low ahead of the holiday season.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.3 per cent, to 23,333.69 points, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.6 per cent, to 11,677.74 points.

Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were CGN Power, up 1.2 per cent at HK$3.51 Bank Of China, down 2.1 per cent at HK$4.24 and AVIC International Holding HK Ltd, up 21.0 per cent at HK$0.75.

Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.52 billion yuan (US$83.58 million) of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.

Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.8 billion shares.

REUTERS