Hong Kong stocks close 0.24% lower

Hong Kong stocks went down 55 points, or 0.24 percent, to close on Friday at 22,510.08 points. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 22,595.71 and 22, 452.64. Turnover totaled 62.04 billion HK dollars (about 7.99 billion U.S. dollars), down from Thursday's 71.67 billion HK dollars. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index ended up 16.21 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 10,110.01. Two of the four sub-indices gained grounds. The Finance sub- index gained 0.29 percent, the Utilities edged up 0.04 percent, the Properties lowered 0.56 percent, the Commerce & Industry was down 0.79 percent. Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, rose 0.13 percent to close at 79.15 HK dollars. Its local unit Hang Seng Bank moved up 0.4 percent to 125. 50 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, moved up 0.32 percent to 31.60 HK dollars. China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, was down 1.11 percent to 71.10 HK dollars, while another Chinese telecom giant China Unicom surged 2.58 percent to 10.32 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX rocketed 2.92 percent to 130.50 HK dollars. Among local property stocks, Sun Hung Kai, HK's largest property developer by market value, moved up 0.4 percent to close at 99.90 HK dollars. Cheung Kong properties, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing, fell 1.26 percent to 133.70 HK dollars. As for mainland-based financial stocks, Bank of China fell 0.59 percent to 3.38 HK dollars. Bank of Communications was up 1 percent to 5.07 HK dollars. China Construction Bank ended flat at 5.40 HK dollars. ICBC ended up 0.64 percent to 4.74 HK dollars. As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec lost 0.14 percent to 6.94 HK dollars. PetroChina rose 1.16 percent to 8.69 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.76 HK dollar)