A STEEP fall in Hongkong Telecom's share price on fears of increased competition led the Hang Seng Index sharply down yesterday.
The index ended down 122.19 points, or 1.29 per cent, at 9,288.04, after hitting a low of 9,248.43. Turnover was light at $2.64 billion against an adjusted $2.85 billion on Friday.
Telecom fell 55 cents, or 3.75 per cent, closing at $14.10 - more than a four-month low. Trading in the stock, largely institutional selling, represented overall market turnover of more than 15 per cent, at $415.5 million.
That was more than double the turnover of HSBC Holdings' $201.56 million.
'There has been a lot of investor focus on Telecom over the last couple of weeks with its monopoly gone, and obviously it was the biggest thing that dropped the market today,' Crosby Securities research director Archie Hart said.
'It's unusual that you will see it have twice the turnover of HSBC.' Declines in United States Treasury bonds, indicating there would not likely be a fall in interest rates in the near future, was seen as another factor for profit-taking in an otherwise uneventful trading day.