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Hong Kong shares Thursday opened 209.05 lower and expanded their losses, seeing a day-low of20,963.37. The benchmark index dropped 544.79 points, or 2.52 percent, to end the session at 21,050.73 as losses narrowed down in the afternoon.
Thursday's turnover rose to 78.69 billion HK dollars from Wednesday's 58.54 billion HK dollars.
China Enterprises Index went down 384.56 points, or 3.09 percent, to close at 12,047.25 points.
All four major stock categories lost. The finance sub-index became the biggest loser and plunged 2.8 percent. The utilities dropped 1.38 percent, the properties, 2.08 percent, the commerce and industry, 2.4 percent.
Blue-chips ended lower. Banking giant HSBC Holdings plunged 2. 31 percent to close at 88.7 HK dollars. Heavyweight China Mobile, by far the largest mobile carrier in the mainland, fell 2.53 percent to 78.85 HK dollars. HKEx, the sole exchange operator in Hong Kong, lost 2.64 percent, to 144.1 HK dollars.
Local properties also lost. Cheung Kong, the flagship of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, fell 1.8 percent to 98.4 HK dollars. SHK Properties lost 2.27 percent to 112.1 HK dollars. Henderson Land slid 4.02 percent to 50.2 HK dollars.
Mainland-based commercial lenders ended lower. Bank of China fell 3.97 percent to close at 4.11 HK dollars. ICBC fell 2.8 percent to 5.89 HK dollars. CCB moved 2.96 percent down to 6.22 HK dollars.
Chinese insurance shares finished lower. China Life lost 3.23 percent to 34.45 HK dollars. Ping An fell 3.11 percent to 62.35 HK dollars. PICC P&C lost 5.93 percent to 5.39 HK dollars.
As for energy shares, PetroChina dropped 2.98 percent to 9.11 HK dollars, off-shore oil producer CNOOC lost 3.51 percent to 10. 44 HK dollars, while Sinopec Corp fell 2.19 percent to 6.71 HK dollars.
Metallurgical Corp. of China closed at 5.61 HK dollars on the first day of its trading debut, 11.65 percent below its offering price. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)
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