Roundup: Hong Kong stocks close 1.58 pct lower

Hong Kong stocks dropped 303.70 points, or 1.58 percent, to close at 18,888.75 points on Thursday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 18,867.70 and 19,215.49. Turnover totaled 63.69 billion HK dollars (about 8.20 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 2.35 percent, or 189.77 points, to close at 7,871.94 points.

All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index fell the most at 1.81 percent, followed by the Commerce & Industry at 1.63 percent, the Finance at 1.53 percent, the Utilities at 1.24 percent.

Energy shares slid. Petro China, China's largest oil and gas producer, lost 2.56 percent to close at 4.94 HK dollars, CNOOC shed 2.13 percent to 7.81 HK dollars, while Sinopec lowered 2.10 percent to 4.19 HK dollars.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lost 1.95 percent to close at 47.75 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks, slid 1.23 percent to close at 24.05 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX ended 2.32 percent lower at 168.3 HK dollars.

Tingyi tumbled 5.47 percent to 7.08 HK dollars after the report of its deteriorating revenue in the second half of 2015.

Local developers closed lower. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers by market value, closed at 85.6 HK dollars, down 1.27 percent. Henderson Land lost 2.83 percent to 41.15 HK dollars. CKH Holdings dropped 1.94 percent to 93.7 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks went down. Bank of China fell 1.7 percent to close at 2.89 HK dollars. China Construction Bank closed 1.74 percent lower at 4.53 HK dollars.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest lender, moved down 2.29 percent to 3.84 HK dollars. Endit