Hang Seng falls 1.2% on profit booking

Hong Kong share market closed lower in volatile trade on Monday, 17 November 2014, as profit taking across the board following strong gain last week after the announcement of official launch date of the Shanghai-HK Stock Connect scheme. The Hang Seng Index ended down 290 points to 23,797, off an intra-day high of 24,313 and low of 23,787. Turnover rose to HK$83 billion from HK$72.6 billion on Friday.

Hong Kong indexes opened more than 1% higher but soon sagged to close lower on the day. The run-up to the launch saw a strong market rally, partly on expectations of an increase in fund flows from the scheme, leaving investors cautious of chasing stocks any higher.

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program started on Monday, opening up mainland Chinese markets to global capital. The southbound allowed daily quota of HK$10.5 billion was only 17% utilized, while the northbound daily quota of RMB13 billion was fully used up one hour before the A-share market closed.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News