Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close 1.82 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks moved down 344.15 points, or 1.82 percent, to close at 18,542.15 points on Thursday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 18,534.3 and 19,238.27. Turnover totaled 96.49 billion HK dollars (about 12.37 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index moved down 179.8 points, or 2.24 percent, to close at 7,835.64 points.

Four sub-indices lost ground, with the Properties sub-index dropping the most by 3.27 percent, followed by the Finance 1.99 percent, the Utilities 1.81 percent, and the Commerce and Industry 1.22 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, dropped 2.35 percent to 51.9 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, retreated 3.36 percent to close at 21.55 HK dollars.

Local bourse operator HKEX lost 3.33 percent to 162.5 HK dollars.

China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, ended flat at 80 HK dollars. China Unicom, another Chinese telecom giant, retreated 1.48 percent to 8 HK dollars.

Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers by market value, closed down 1.93 percent to 81.3 HK dollars. Henderson Land ended 6.1 percent lower at 37.7 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks ended lower. Bank of China went down 1.68 percent to 2.93 HK dollars. China Construction Bank dropped 1.97 percent to 4.49 HK dollars. ICBC closed down 1.53 percent to 3.86 HK dollars.

As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec moved up 0.77 percent to 3.91 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, retreated 1.18 percent to 4.18 HK dollars. Endit