Hong Kong stocks close lower

Hong Kong stocks dropped 324.57 points (1.52 percent) to close on Wednesday at 21,080.39 points.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 21,060.09 and 21, 686.45. Turnover totalled 108.89 billion HK dollars ($14.05 billion), Xinhua reported.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 86.11 points (0.91 percent) to 9,427.93 points.

Three of the four sub-indices lost ground. The Commerce & Industry sub-index dropped the most at 1.83 percent, followed by the Finance at 1.57 percent.

The Properties index dropped at 1.1 percent, while the Utilities rose 0.62 percent.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, retreated 1.78 percent to 60.6 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, dropped 0.76 percent to close at 26.3 HK dollars.

Local bourse operator HKEX edged down 0.83 percent to 178.5 HK dollars.

China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, lost 2.7 percent to 90.15 HK dollars while China Unicom fell 3.85 percent to 9.98 HK dollars.

Local property stocks closed mixed. Sun Hung Kai, one of Hong Kong's largest property developer by market value, rose 0.42 percent to 96.6 HK dollars.

Henderson Land dropped 1.49 percent to 46.15 HK dollars. CKH Holdings lost 1.96 percent to 100.3 HK dollars.

Mainland-based financial stocks closed down. Bank of China slid 2.22 percent to close at 3.53 HK dollars. China Construction Bank fell 1.47 percent to 5.38 HK dollars.

Bank of Communication went down 0.34 percent to 5.86 HK dollars. ICBC lost 0.86 percent to 4. 59 HK dollars.

As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec dropped 1.79 percent to 4.95 HK dollars.

PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, gained 0.8 percent to 6.29 HK dollars. CNOOC moved up 1.9 percent to 8.06 HK dollars.