HONG KONG, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks opened lower Monday, affected by profit taking after Friday's record-breaking run, but narrowed its losses to 0.33 percent at closing after moderate fluctuations in the morning and the afternoon.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 373.12 points, or 1.56 percent, to open at 23,611.02, mainly due to profit taking after the late record-breaking run spurred by expectations for capital to flood in from the mainland to the Hong Kong market, which sent the Hang Seng Index to close at the new high of 23,984.14 Friday.

But index gradually recovered part of the ground lost at Monday's opening, closing at 23,765.79 at noon and finished the day at 23,904.09 after trading between 23,915.05 and 23,611.02 on a total turnover of 84.42 billion HK dollars (10,843 U.S. dollars).

The utilities sub-index suffered the most losses, down 304.22 points or 0.84 percent, whereas the properties sub-index turned out to be the only gainer among the four sub-indices, adding 78.56points, or 0.28 percent.

Analysts said they expected the index to stay above 23,000 and that Friday's all-time high of 24,089 was very likely to be the peak in near term, adding that any pullback was unlikely to be significant given strong buying interest on the market.

Share price of heavyweight China Mobile went down 0.57 HK dollars, or 0.55 percent, to close at 104.5 HK dollars while its rival mobile carrier China Unicom lost 0.27 percent to 14.52 HK dollars. China Netcom was up 0.42 percent at 18.92 HK dollars.

HSBC holdings turned out one of the few blue-chip gainers Friday, rising 0.2 HK dollars to close at 139.9 HK dollars.

HSBC unit Hang Seng Bank lost 0.16 percent to close at 122.1 HK dollars.

Bank of China went down 2 percent to 3.93 HK dollars while BOC Hong Kong lost 0.32 percent at 18.66 HK dollars.

China Life lost 0.93 percent to 37.3 HK dollars.

Computer manufacturer Lenovo went down 0.03 HK dollars to 5.14 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)