Hong Kong stocks fall slightly in V-turn comeback trading

HONG KONG, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks once plunged as much as 444.71 points, or 1.71 percent, but later made a drastic V-turn comeback to edged down only 19.29 points, or 0.08 percent, to close at 25,533.48 on Wednesday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 91.4 points, 0.36 percent, to open at 25,461.37 and continued heading downward to the day's lowest 25,108.06 during the morning session.

Bargain-hunting investors bought into blue-chip stocks like China's largest offshore oil producer CNOOC, pulling the index from the bottom when trading began in the afternoon session.

The index edged down only 19.29 points, or 0.08 percent, to finish at 25,533.48, just a tick off the intra-day high 25,546.78.

Turnover shrank to 67.92 billion HK dollars (8.71 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 80.84 billion HK dollars.

Market heavyweight HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, dropped 0.15 percent to 135.3 HK dollars.

China Mobile, the largest mobile phone operator in the country and the market's largest stock measured by capitalization, went down 0.38 percent to 132.5 HK dollars.

CNOOC was the major contributor to the market's V-turn comeback by jumping 2.93 percent to 14.76 HK dollars, offsetting 32.62 points of the index's losses.

Two other energy companies were down. PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, dipped 0.55 percent, to 10.9 HK dollars. Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, lost 2.22 percent to 7.49 HK dollars.

Hong Kong's property companies headed toward different directions. SHK Properties, the largest house developer in Hong Kong controlled by the Kwoks magnates, dipped 0.65 percent to 137.4 HK dollars. New World Development inched down 0.48 percent to 20. 8 HK dollars. Cheung Kong, one of the biggest housing companies controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, added 0.49 percent to 122.2 HK dollars. Sino Land rose 1.68 percent to 21.25 HK dollars. Henderson Land increased 0.59 percent to 59.35 HK dollars. Hang Lung gained 0.65 percent to 30.8 HK dollars.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, the market's sole operator, weakened 1.69 percent to 151.2 HK dollars after it reported a 79 percent growth of revenue to 1.65 billion HK dollars in the first quarter.

China Enterprise Index, or H-shares, which was composed of 43 companies registered on the Chinese mainland, edged up 2.33 points to close at 13,980.24 after struggling out of the negative territory.

Most of China's banks listed in Hong Kong were higher. Heavily traded ICBC, China's largest lender, added 0.33 percent to 6.12 HK dollars. Bank of China, the country's second largest bank, rose 0.75 percent to 4.02 HK dollars. China Construction Bank, the third largest bank in China, gained 0.98 percent to 7.19 HK dollars. China Merchants Bank increased 0.33 percent to 30.9 HK dollars. Bank of Communications slid 0.37 percent to 10.78 HK dollars.

All insurance companies fell. China Life, the country's largest life insurer, lost 0.45 percent to 33.05 HK dollars. Ping An dipped 0.57 percent to 70.45 HK dollars. PICC P&C, whose premium were mainly property and life insurance, fell 0.57 percent to 6.96HK dollars.