Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close down 5.84 pct, tracking mainland losses

Hong Kong stocks lost 1,458.75 points, or 5.84 percent to close at 23,516.56 points on Wednesday, led by losses on mainland markets and panic selling.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened lower, plunging over 4.7 percent at the start of the morning session. The decline widened in the afternoon, with the index once shed about 2,000, the biggest single day drop in history, touching 22,836.82 points, the lowest of the day. Turnover totaled 235.97 billion HK dollars ( about 30.44 billion U.S. dollars).

Core Pacific-Yamaichi's head of research Castor Pang said that the main reason of the decline was that Hong Kong and Shanghai have high correlation with many mainland companies listed in both places, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chairman Chow Chung-kong told the media that the bourse operator has no intention to intervene the market and will keep an eye on it to make sure it is operating orderly under the risk management control.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index moved down 720 points, or 6.09 percent, to close at 11,107.30 points.

All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Finance sub-index fell the most at 5.94 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry at 5.9, the Properties at 6.15 percent, the Utilities at 3.49 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 3.94 percent to 65.75 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, slumped 6.34 percent to close at 30.9 HK dollars.

Local bourse operator HKEX plunged 8.37 percent to 203.4 HK dollars.

China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, lost 6.05 percent to 89.95 HK dollars. China Unicom, another Chinese telecom giant, dropped 8.92 percent to 10 HK dollars.

Local property stocks closed slumped. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developer by market value, shed 5.81 percent to 115.1 HK dollars. Henderson Land decreased 4.39 percent to 49 HK dollars. CKH Holdings fell 4.36 percent to 105 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks tumbled. Bank of China lost 6. 68 percent to close at 4.34 HK dollars. China Construction Bank fell 6.02 percent to 6.39 HK dollars. ICBC shed 7.56 percent to 5. 5 HK dollars. Bank of Communication bucked the trend of declining and rose 0.79 percent to 7.6 HK dollars.

As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec lowered 3.44 percent to 6.16 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, decreased 5.23 percent to 7.96 HK dollars. CNOOC dived 8.36 percent to 9.64 HK dollars. Endi