Hong Kong stocks fell more than a third of a percent on Friday, with oil producers down after a drop in oil prices and investors looking ahead to key US employment data due out after market close. Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng Index closed 0.35 percent, or 49.95 points lower, at 14,211.84. Turnover was HK$22.3 billion (US $2.9 billion), compared to HK$25.4 billion on Thursday.
The index has gained over two percent over the week and 13 percent since the beginning of the year. China enterprise stocks, also known as H-shares, suffered heavier losses than the Hang Seng Index, sinking 1.27 percent, or 63.11 points, to 4,896.66.
PetroChina Co Ltd fell 1.16 percent to HK$4.25 after oil prices sagged due to a rise in US heating oil stocks. Sinopec Corp dropped 3.05 percent to HK$3.175.
Offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd was the top Hang Seng loser, shedding 2.84 percent to HK$4.275.
Shares in Hong Kong's dominant carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd rose 2.11 percent to HK$14.50 on the back of the drop in oil prices. Fuel accounts for a major share of airlines' costs.
The United States will release its November employment report at 1330 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast that a median 180,000 new jobs were created in the month compared with a rise of 337,000 jobs in October.
The unemployment rate is seen at 5.4 percent, from 5.5 percent in the previous month.
Traders also put Friday's subdued trading down to IPO-hungry investors looking ahead to Air China's US $1.1 billion IPO and the Link REIT's US $3 billion IPO.
"Investors are looking forward to the initial public offerings next week, which is why Hong Kong (investors') reaction to the fall in oil prices today was not that good," said Alex Wong, asset management director at Rexcapital Asset Management.
China gold miner Zijin Mining fell 4 percent to HK$3.60 as world gold prices lost some of their lustre.
China Resources Cement Holdings Ltd said on Friday it had agreed to buy a 73.5 percent stake in a cement production firm from its parent China Resources (Holdings) Ltd for HK$151.7 million (US $19.4 million) and would issue HK$800 million worth of zero coupon convertible bonds.
The firm's stock fell 3.72 percent to HK$1.81.
Sinotrans Ltd shares tumbled 6.6 percent to HK$2.475 on news that United Parcel Service Inc would take over most of its international express delivery operations.
UPS will pay US $100 million in the deal. Signed on Wednesday, it will take effect throughout 2005 and end a 16-year agency relationship in which Sinotrans acted as freight forwarder for UPS in China, president of UPS Asia Pacific Ken Torok said.