Hong Kong stocks decline

Hong Kong stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday, tracking a softer close in New York on Tuesday amid lower crude oil prices, with buying interest from a firmer Japanese market curbing a larger decline.
Hang Seng Index, which opened 0.70 percent down, ended 0.54 percent, or 82.04 points, lower at 15,101.54 on Wednesday. The blue chip index gained just 0.01 percent on Friday and was up 1.0 percent for the whole of last week.
"A rise in the Japanese market fuelled buying interest, allowing the market to recover a bit from an earlier loss," said Francis Lun, general manager from Fulbright Securities.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index gained 1.4 percent on Wednesday, rallying to a five-year closing high. Turnover in Hong Kong was at HK$13.6 billion (US $1.7 billion), compared to HK$11.0 billion last Friday.
The Hong Kong stock market was closed on Monday and Tuesday for Christmas holidays.
Shares of Sinopec, the fifth most heavily traded stock, caught most of the attention after the company said on Wednesday its state-run parent had received 10 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) from the Chinese government as one-off compensation for price caps amid high crude prices.
Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, said it would receive 9.415 billion yuan of that amount. The company's Hong Kong shares rose 2.6 percent to their all-time high of HK$3.975 before ending at HK$3.90 on Wednesday.
Sinopec's unit Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical also said it will also receive a one-off payment of 632.82 million yuan to be recorded into its total profits for 2005. Another unit Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical also said it will receive one-off compensation of 1.12 billion yuan.
Shanghai Petrochemical, which was also one of the most heavily traded stocks, rose 1.7 percent to HK$2.975, while Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co Ltd shares, which gained 0.5 percent to an intraday high of HK$10.15, ended flat at HK$10.10 on Wednesday.
However, shares of Sinopec's domestic rival PetroChina, China's largest oil producer, fell 0.79 percent to HK$6.30 after a company spokesman said the firm had not received government compensation for refining losses.
An official from PetroChina also said the company has won Beijing's approval to build a $2.5 billion petrochemical complex in the south-west.
Shares of TCL Communication Technology fell 9.6 percent to an all-time low of HK$0.198 before they ended at HK$0.205. Shares of TCL Multimedia Technology fell 8.9 percent to a record low of HK$1.02, before finishing at HK$1.08. Shares in the two companies fell after their parent TCL Corp said earlier on Wednesday that Dutch electronics group Philips will boost its stake in TCL Corp to 7.46 percent from 2.46 percent for 242 million yuan.
Shares of Chinese bad-loan specialist Silver Grant International Industries Ltd fell 2.1 percent to HK$2.325 after the company said it was in talks with certain parties on proposed acquisitions of interest in non-performing loans in China. It said no terms had yet been agreed.