Hong Kong stocks drop tracking mainland market woes

Hong Kong stocks ended lower on Monday, following mainland stock market woes, and marked the worst quarterly performance in more than six years.

Hang Seng Index, the benchmark, opened lower at 22,997.04 points in the morning session. After fluctuating between 22,700.84 and 23,077.84 points, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index dropped 436.75 points, or 1.88% to close at 22,849.20. It fell more than 6% for the month of March and almost 18% for the quarter. Mainboard turnover shrank to HK$74.50 billion (US$9.58 billion) from HK$98 billion on Friday.

Hang Seng China Enterprise Index, which tracks the overall performance of 43 Chinese mainland state-owned enterprises on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, finished down 349.23 points or 2.81% to 12,083.30 points.

Market heavyweight HSBC Holdings Plc dipped 0.86% to HK$126.7.

Another market heavyweight China Mobile, the largest firm by capitalization in the Hong Kong market, gained 2.51% to HK$118.3. Smaller rival China Unicom shot down 3.19% to HK$16.38. China Telecom plunged 4.69% to HK$4.88 after it reported a 12.9% decline in 2007 net profit.

All the Chinese banks listed in Hong Kong fell. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , the largest lender in the country, slumped 2.58% to HK$5.42. Bank of China, the second-largest bank, lost 2.35% to HK$3.32. China Construction Bank , the third-largest bank by market value, dropped 2.84% to HK$5.81.

China Life, the country's largest life insurer, fell 4.29% to HK$ 26.75. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co ended down 3.25% to HK$55.15.

The local property stocks also underperformed on recent news flow of lower transaction prices in the market. Cheung Kong (Holding) Ltd, one of Hong Kong's largest real-estate developers owned by business giant Li Ka-shing, declined 1.3 % to HK$110.5. Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd registered a loss of 1.3% to HK$121.4.

Shares of China Resources vaulted 1.63% to HK$25 after the beverage-to-ports conglomerate posted a 79% increase in 2007 net.

Jiangsu Expressway Co Ltd was the day's another bright spot. Its shares stormed 4.63% to HK$7 as the Chinese toll road operator saw 2007 profit soared 40% to RMB 1.64 billion.