Hong Kong stocks slipped 0.3 percent on Friday, weighed down by a drop in Chinese stocks to a 12-month low on worries over high inflation, the outlook for corporate profits and a heavy supply of new shares.
But China Mobile rose 1.9 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings due on Monday on hopes that it will continue to enjoy its leading position in China's wireless telecom market as there is no clear schedule on the sector's restructuring."It will benefit if the issuance of China's 3G licences continues to be delayed," said Kenny Tang, associate director at research department.
Licences for China's home-grown third-generation (3G) wireless standard may not be granted for one or two years, a newspaper quoted an Ernst & Young partner as saying this week. The benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 61.18 points to finish at 24,197.78. The index closed the week down 1.91 percent, snapping three straight weeks of gains, after a mixed bag of US corporate earnings.
"Trading has been pretty sluggish and the main index is likely to move around the 250-day moving average of around 24,304 points," said Antony Mak, sales director at DBS Vickers. The China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed companies, or H shares, finished down 1.65 percent at 12,675.43. It lost 5.10 percent for the week in concert with Shanghai's composite index, which posted its biggest weekly drop since 1996 this week, down 11.4 percent.
Mainboard turnover was at HK$79.89 billion ($10.25 billion), up slightly from HK$72.66 billion on Thursday. Shanghai's stock market fell 3.97 percent on Friday, or 49 percent below last October's record peak. Heavy supplies of new shares and fears that high inflation may lead to further austerity measures by the Chinese government dampened market sentiment.
PetroChina lost 2.77 percent to HK$9.82 after its Shanghai stock fell below its IPO price of 16.70 yuan for the first time to a low of 16.0 yuan on fears that high oil prices will cause losses at its refining operations. But technology stocks rose on Friday, lifted by positive results from US technology bellwether International Business Machines Corp and Intel released this week.
Shares in Lenovo, the world's No 4 personal computer maker, rose as much as 4.7 percent after IDC reported on Thursday that PC shipments worldwide rose 14.6 percent in the first quarter, above previous estimates.
Chipmaker SMIC gained 3.64 percent amid persistent talk the struggling firm is close to selling a stake to a major investor to tide it through an expected downturn in the global chip sector. Chinese power gear maker Shanghai Electric bore the most burnt among the H-shares, losing 6.51 percent and Huaneng falling 2.34 percent on poor first-quarter earnings announced earlier this week on rising coal and other costs.
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