Roundup: Hong Kong stocks plunges 2.34 percent

Hong Kong stocks plunged 455.25 points, or 2.34 percent on Wednesday to close at 18,991.59 points, tracking losses on Wall Street overnight.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened down and slumped more than 680 points to touch the lowest at 18,764.82 in the morning session as oil price tumbled and struck markets globally.

Local market struggled to reach 19,000 points, the crest of the day, in the afternoon. Turnover totaled 78.68 billion HK dollars (about 10.21 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 2.49 percent, or 200.52 points, to close at 7,858.31 points.

All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Finance sub-index fell the most at 2.71 percent, followed by the Properties at 2.59 percent, the Commerce & Industry at 2.14 percent, the Utilities at 0.33 percent.

Energy shares slid, as a result of the sharp cut in oil price. Petro China, China's largest oil and gas producer, lost 4.15 percent to close at 4.38 HK dollars, CNOOC shed almost 4 percent to 7.25 HK dollars, while Sinopec lowered 2.79 percent to 4.18 HK dollars.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 3.5 percent to close at 52.25 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks, tumbled 3.89 percent to close at 20.95 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX ended 1.36 percent lower at 166.2 HK dollars.

Local developers closed lower. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers by market value, closed at 80.9 HK dollars, down 2.82 percent. Henderson Land dived 4.12 percent to 39.55 HK dollars. CKH Holdings fell 1.8 percent to 95.35 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks went down. Bank of China fell 1.67 percent to close at 2.94 HK dollars. China Construction Bank closed 1.52 percent lower at 4.51 HK dollars.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest lender, moved down 0.76 percent to 3.88 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.79 HK dollars) Enditem