Hong Kong stocks ended Thursday sharply lower, with the benchmark Hang Seng falling back below the 30,000 point mark after the previous session's breakthrough, as a tumble in mainland stocks soured sentiment. The Hang Seng index fell 1.0 percent, to 29,707.94, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.9 percent, to 11,737.06 points, the lowest level in a month. Most of the damage was done in the last hour of trading.
Investors took profit in sectors including financials, IT and consumer goods, as pessimistic mood in China split over the border. The mainland blue-chip index suffered its worst one-day fall in almost 1-1/2 years with a nearly 3 percent slump, as Beijing stepped up its deleveraging campaign. The top gainer on Hang Seng was WH Group Ltd up 1.69 percent, while the biggest loser was AAC Technologies Holdings Inc which was down 4.24 percent.
The biggest gainers among H-shares were China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd up 2.41 percent, followed by Great Wall Motor Co Ltd gaining 0.98 percent and China Railway Construction Corp Ltd up by 0.77 percent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were China Pacific Insurance Group Co Ltd which has fallen 4.73 percent, New China Life Insurance Co Ltd which has lost 4.7 percent and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd down by 4.1 percent.