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SCMP Reporter

Hong Kong stocks ended lower yesterday after a hectic day of trading.

 The Hang Seng Index lost 133.13 points to 15,021.23.

 Some red chips showed resilience despite restrictions on asset injections announced by Beijing on Friday.

 The Hang Seng red-chip index fell 1.95 per cent to 3,066.63 points.

 Nava SC Securities salesman Geoff Galbraith said: 'The market is so high right now and it is getting jitters ahead of the handover.'  Brokers said 'rotational rumours' prompted investors to shift money out of Hang Seng Bank and into Bank of East Asia.

 On Friday, Hang Seng Bank rose more than 13 per cent on rumours that part of it would be sold to a mainland entity. Yesterday, it fell 5 per cent to $104 after new rumours circulated that the China entity was instead interested in buying part of Bank of East Asia, which saw its share price jump 6 per cent to $31.80.

 Among the hardest hit yesterday were HSBC, Dao Heng Bank and property developers such as Henderson Land and New World Development.

 Johnson Electric was the strongest blue chip, rising 6.1 per cent to a record high $24. The micromotor-maker posted higher than expected earnings growth of 58 per cent for the year to March 31.

 Analysts said Johnson Electric stock was thinly traded and largely owned by institutional investors, so trades in the stock tended to be large and had a sharp effect on the price.

 Red chips saw limited profit-taking despite mainland measures to control asset injections.

 Mansion House research chief Stanley Ng said: 'The measures were not as bad as people thought and at least they remove the uncertainty.'  The new measures require mainland companies to receive approval from the central government before injecting assets into their Hong Kong-listed subsidiaries.

 The sentiment among analysts was that larger red-chip firms with close ties to the central or regional mainland governments would not be significantly affected by the measures.

 Shanghai Industrial and China Merchants Holdings each ended lower, while Cosco Pacific jumped more than 5 per cent.

 Seapower Securities analyst Sunny Chan saw the market remaining flat this week, with losses in property stocks counteracted by banks and utilities.

 'The sentiment towards utilities has changed,' he said, adding that China had already made clear that it intended to play a greater role in Hong Kong utility firms. That in turn would allow them to expand into the mainland market.

KEY FIGURES Close: 15,021.23 (-133.13) Turnover: $26.32 bln Volume: 8.65 bln shares Day's high: 15,322.33 Day's low: 14,993.72 Advanced: 300 Declined: 519 Unchanged: 303 June futures: 15,100 (-170) July futures: 15,190 (-170) 



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