[HONG KONG] Hong Kong shares finished down on Friday, shrugging off a massive rally in mainland shares as rumours swirled about the launch of deposit insurance regulations for mainland banks.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.1 per cent, to 23,987.45, while the China Enterprises Index gained 1.2 per cent, to 11,145.39 points.

Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were CCT Land Holdings, unchanged at HK$0.02 South East Group, up 28.4 per cent to HK$0.29 and Bank Of China, up 3.6 per cent to HK$4.00.

Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 2.79 billion yuan of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.

Total trading volume in Hong Kong was 146.2 billion shares.

REUTERS