Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close 0.59 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks lost 117.47 points, or 0.59 percent, to close at 19,817.41 points on Thursday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 19,509.08 and 19,893.88. Turnover totaled 75.43 billion HK dollars (about 9.7 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.41 percent, or 34.86 points, to close at 8,459.63 points.

Three of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index fell the most at 1.01 percent, followed by the Finance at 0.79 percent, the Commerce & Industry at 0.44 percent, while the Utilities gained 0.91 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 1.31 percent to close at 56.3 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, tumbled 2.21 percent to close at 24.3 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX closed flat at 179.8 HK dollars.

Local developers closed lower. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developer by market value, closed at 89.3 HK dollars, down 0.77 percent. Henderson Land lowered 1.26 percent to 42.9 HK dollars. CKH Holdings closed down 1.16 percent to 97.9 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks went down. Bank of China fell 0.32 percent to close at 3.11 HK dollars. China Construction Bank closed 1.43 percent lower at 4.82 HK dollars. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest lender, lost 0.48 percent to 4.15 HK dollars.

As for oil shares, CNOOC climbed 0.13 percent to close at 7.28 HK dollars. China's top refiner Sinopec fell 0.17 percent to 4.22 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, moved up 0.67 percent to 4.48 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 7.77 HK dollars) Endit