HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Hong Kong shares ended lower for the third straight session Thursday following sharp declines in China's equity markets and Wall Street's fall overnight, with blue-chip energy producers leading the fall after PetroChina's disappointing quarterly results.
The Hang Seng Index fell 496.59 points, or 2.3%, to 21,264.99 after trading between 21,134.33 and 21,346.55 during the session. The index has lost 5.9% since Friday.
Turnover totaled HK$80.81 billion, up from HK$68.97 billion Wednesday.
Analysts said they expect trading on the city's benchmark index to remain volatile in coming sessions because of uncertainties over the pace of the global economic recovery.
They said third-quarter U.S. economic data to be issued later Thursday will be key to driving global investor interest in the near term.
"The disappointing earnings, such as that of PetroChina, give the true picture to the investors who may have been overly optimistic that the market rally has far outpaced the fundamentals," said Peter Lai, a director at DBS Vickers.
Chinese energy producers were among the day's biggest decliners, with the heavy selling fueled by weaker-than-expected third quarter results from PetroChina as well as a decline in crude oil prices.
At 0350 GMT, U.S. crude oil futures for December delivery fell 16 U.S. cents to US$77.30 a barrel, after settling down US$2.09 at US$77.46 in New York overnight, due in part to a stronger U.S. dollar.
PetroChina fell 4.0% to HK$9.55 after it reported Wednesday its third-quarter net profit fell 23% from a year earlier to CNY30.85 billion.
Among the other energy companies, offshore oil producer Cnooc was down 4.5% at HK$11.50, and Sinopec fell 1.3% to HK$6.63.
Declines in overseas markets also contributed to the Hang Seng Index's continued weakness. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.21% Wednesday at 9762.69, and the Shanghai Composite Index shed 2.3% Thursday to close at 2960.47.
Analysts said they expect the Hong Kong stock market to track further losses in regional markets in the near term.
"Government policy direction in both China and the U.S. may have switched from loosening to neutral and as such we expect further declines coming up in the equity markets," said Mark To, associate director at Prudential Brokerage.
Hong Kong-listed Chinese lenders also fell sharply amid concerns Beijing will make a push to further curb personal loan growth.
ICBC was down 2.7% at HK$6.08, Bank of China fell 2.7% to HK$4.33, and China Construction Bank was 2.4% lower at HK$6.61.
Dow Jones Newswires
October 29, 2009 04:46 ET (08:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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