Japan quake brings HK stocks down 1.55%

The strong earthquake hit Japan, which prompted tsunami warnings, caused investor to be jittery that led to Hong Kong shares ending 1.55 percent lower on Friday.

Hong Kong stocks went down 365.11 points, or 1.55 percent, to close at 23,249.78 on Friday. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 23,105.99 and 23,514.73. Turnover totaled 78.79 billion HK dollars, about 10.11 billion U.S. dollars, compared with Thursday's 71.42 billion HK dollars.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index went down 240.49 points, or 1.85 percent, to close at 12,752.01.

All of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Properties sub-index decreased the most at 2.11 percent, following by the Finance at 1.56 percent, the Utilities at 1.05 percent and the Commerce and Industry fell 1.44 percent.

Heavyweight HSBC Holdings fell 1.02 percent to 82.85 HK dollars. Hang Seng Bank went down 1.35 percent to 124.40 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia ended 1.59 percent lower to 33.95 HK dollars.

For Chinese financial firms, ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, decreased 2.24 percent to 6.10 HK dollars. Bank of China ended 1.89 percent lower at 4.15 HK dollars. China Construction Bank fell 1.81 percent to 7.05 HK dollars.

Cathay Pacific, bucking the trend, increased 1.52 percent to 18.74 HK dollars.

You can read the full story at Xinhuanet.com.