Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close 0.61 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks dropped 140.56 points, or 0.61 percent, to close on Monday at 22,726.77 points.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 22,689.26 and 22,970.83. Turnover totaled 79.54 billion HK dollars (10.26 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 49.56 points, or 0.47 percent, to 10,506.41 points.

Three of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index dropped the most at 1.91 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry at 1.41 percent and the Utilities at 0.15 percent. Only the Finance bucked the trend, ending up 0.34 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, advanced 1.56 percent to 61.85 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, lost 0.17 percent to close at 29 HK dollars.

Local bourse operator HKEX edged up 0.09 percent to 212.6 HK dollars.

China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, fell 2.25 percent to 91.2 HK dollars. China Unicom, another Chinese telecom giant, dropped 2.08 percent to 9.91 HK dollars.

Local property stocks were generally down. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developer by market value, dropped 2.09 percent to 98.2 HK dollars. Henderson Land fell 1.33 percent to 48.4 HK dollars. CKH Holdings slid 0.77 percent to 103.3 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks closed down. Bank of China retreated 0.28 percent to close at 3.58 HK dollars. China Construction Bank fell 0.71 percent to 5.59 HK dollars.

As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec dropped 1.45 percent to 5.45 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, lost 1.49 percent to 5.96 HK dollars. CNOOC moved down 2.45 percent to 8.76 HK dollars. Endit