Hong Kong stocks close lower on profit-taking

Hong Kong stocks closed lower Monday on profit taking and a weak performance in the Chinese mainland stock market, with the benchmark Hang Seng index down 436.75 points to close at 22,849.20 .

Hang Seng Index opened at 22,997.04 and fluctuated between 22,700.84 and 23,077.84 during the session. Turnover shrank to 74.50 billion HK dollars (9.58 billion U.S. dollars) from 98 billion HK dollars on Friday.

The Hang Seng Index's 2,177-point rising streak in the previous four trading sessions was snapped as investors were disappointed over the lack of pro-market policies in Chinese mainland.

Market participants had expected China's securities regulator to announce the timeline for the launch of stock index futures over the weekend, but it didn't.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, fell 3 percent to 3,472.21 as a result. Local analysts said in the absence of any immediate 'feel-good' factors, the Hong Kong market will likely trade in a tight range this week.

Index heavyweight China Mobile fell 2.1 percent to 115.80 HK dollars after rising 2.5 percent Friday. HSBC dipped 0.86 percent to 126.7 HK dollars from Friday's 127.9 HK dollars.

Property counters were lower on recent news flow of lower transaction prices in the market. Cheung Kong declined 1.3 percent to 110.5 HK dollars. New World knocked down 0.9 percent to 18.86 HK dollars. SHKP was 1.3 percent lower at 121.4 HK dollars.

On mainland telecom stocks side, China Unicom was down 3.19 percent, Netcom down 0.89 percent and China Telecom down 4.69 percent after posting a 12.9-percent annual net profit decrease for last year.

On mainland insurers side, China Life, Ping An and PICC P&C slid 4.29 percent, 3.25 percent and 5.89 percent, respectively, to 26.75 HK dollars, 55.15 HK dollars and 7.03 HK dollars.

The six mainland banking stocks went down across the board. CCB, ICBC, Bank of China, Bankcomm, CM Bank and CITIC Bank shed 2.35 percent to 3.29 percent.