Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close 2.57 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks dropped 568.81 points, or 2.57 percent, to close on Thursday at 21,562.5 points.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 21,492.09 and 21, 771.57. Turnover totaled 79.47 billion HK dollars (10.25 billion U. S. dollars), down from 115.43 billion HK dollars the previous trading day.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 195.37 points, or 1.96 percent, to 9,780.16 points.

All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Commerce & Industry sub-index dropped the most at 2.96 percent, followed by the Finance at 2.49 percent, the Properties at 1.92 percent and the Utilities at 1.65 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, retreated 2.25 percent to 60.8 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, lost 2.21 percent to close at 26.5 HK dollars.

Local bourse operator HKEX dropped 2.16 percent to 185.8 HK dollars.

China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, lost 2.4 percent to 91.7 HK dollars. China Unicom, another Chinese telecom giant, slid 1.34 percent to 10.28 HK dollars.

Local property stocks closed down. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developer by market value, lost 0.8 percent to 99.2 HK dollars. Henderson Land dropped 1.85 percent to 50.35 HK dollars. CKH Holdings edged down 1.64 percent to 108.1 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks closed lower. Bank of China fell 3.86 percent to close at 3.49 HK dollars. China Construction Bank dropped 2.55 percent to 5.36 HK dollars. Bank of Communication went down 2.8 percent to 5.56 HK dollars. ICBC lost 2.54 percent to 4.6 HK dollars.

As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec dropped 2.42 percent to 5.24 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, retreated 3.92 percent to 5.98 HK dollars. CNOOC moved down 4.04 percent to 8.8 HK dollars. Endi