HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, tracking Wall Street and regional weakness, with China Mobile <0941.hk> leading the losses on speculation that an industry revamp may start next year and see it lose market share.
But recently listed shares bucked the broad market trend, with Vietnam Manufacturing & Export Processing Ltd soaring as much as 19 percent and China National Materials Company Ltd (Sinoma) jumping 10 percent. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.06 percent to 27,546.82 on mainboard turnover of HK$42.2 billion (US$5.4 billion). The China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed mainland companies , or H shares, fell 1.59 percent to 16,087.34. "It's just an instant feedback of negative global sentiment due to the Pakistan unrest," said Peter Lai, director of DBS Vickers, refering to the assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, which some fear will spur instability. "But as we can see, Dow Jones futures are now up. I believe the market may go back again," he said, adding that turnover would be low as most investors were still in holiday mood. Japanese stocks , which closed for the year on Friday, ended down 11 percent for 2007 in their first annual decline in five years, which also weighed on regional markets. Some telecom stocks gained in Hong Kong after Chinese state media quoted the country's top telecoms regulator as saying Beijing would push a long-awaited reshuffle of the telecoms industry in 2008, creating players that operate both wireless and fixed-line services to address unbalanced competition. China Telecom <0728.hk>, defying the market's slide, climbed 0.6 percent, on speculation that the fixed-line operator will get a mobile licence in the industry revamp, while telecoms equipment maker ZTE climbed 0.5 percent. But China Mobile slid 1.3 percent as investors feared it would lose market share.
Air China soared 5 percent as Hong Kong and mainland China agreed to relax restrictions on aviation services, letting carriers such as Air China expand flights and cargo services. Bank of East Asia jumped as much as 4.5 percent after Spain's largest savings bank La Caixa said it had bought about 4 percent of Hong Kong-based bank in a deal worth around 265 million euros, becoming the biggest public shareholder.
ICBC (Asia) gained 2.9 percent after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said it had agreed to buy HK$1.92 billion worth of shares and warrants of ICBC (Asia) from the Spanish Fortis Bank. China's second-largest listed electricity producer Datang Power rose 1.9 percent after the company said it was planning a reorganisation and would discuss the issue with regulators within eight trading days.
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