Hong Kong blue chips fell prey to heavy profit-taking yesterday, losing 2.8 per cent as leading property and telecommunications counters weighed down the Hang Seng Index. The benchmark dropped 457.39 points to 15,825.31, after having finished above the 16,000-point level for the previous four trading days. Turnover was $11.74 billion, down $1.77 billion from Tuesday. 'There was heavy profit-taking. The blue chips are down,' Daiwa Securities Asian equity vice-president Michael Liang said. Nomura Securities sales trading head Steven Vinik said leading property stocks were the big losers. 'There was profit-taking on residential property developers,' Mr Vinik said, adding that Nomura had been negative on the residential sector for some time. He said the downturn was also because 'people are closing their books and there was no one there to pick it up'. The property sub-index dived 4.04 per cent. Sun Hung Kai Properties shed 4.58 per cent to $78 and Cheung Kong dropped 3.84 per cent to $93.75. Analysts said Tuesday's 0.28 per cent fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index's 2.36 per cent slump might have also affected sentiment. HSBC and Hang Seng Bank traded on the downside, falling 1.41 per cent to $104.50 and 2.47 per cent to $88.50, respectively. China Telecom, Swire Pacific and Henderson Land also lost ground, along with new index constituent SmarTone. Tuesday's sharpest gainer, First Pacific, had 11.47 per cent knocked off its price to close at $5.40. 'Activity will slow down to a certain extent,' Mr Liang said of the movement in most blue chips in the lead-up to Christmas. Laggard mainland-related shares picked up yesterday, including several banks with exposure to the economy. Union Bank jumped 6.01 per cent to $7.05 and Citic Ka Wah Bank's stock moved 9.32 per cent higher to $3.225. 'These banks have the biggest China exposure,' Mr Liang said. 'There has also been a rumour that [state-controlled] China Merchants will sell its stake [in Union Bank] to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and that's still going around.' Mr Vinik said Nomura had been pushing Union Bank as a trading buy as it was at a discount to book a few weeks ago. 'It is starting to look very cheap in this market,' Mr Vinik said. Another mainland play, Citic Pacific, was one of only two blue chips which finished higher yesterday, along with Johnson Electric. Analysts said mainland plays had been lagging the recent rally in the traditional index stocks. 'We would say that China Resources and Citic Pacific and a number of China stalwarts should have a good run going forward,' a dealer said. Citic finished 2.8 per cent higher at $25.65. Brokers said there was continued speculative interest in AWT, a company involved in property and freight forwarding. The company is rumoured to be a takeover target. A broker said: 'One day, they're talking about [Pacific Century CyberWorks chairman] Richard Li [Tzar-kai] taking a stake and the next day, it's someone else.' AWT plummeted 6.36 per cent to 20.6 cents after closing at a high for the month of 26 cents on December 8, compared with 12.6 cents on November 23. KEY FIGURES Close: 15,825.31 (- 457.39) Turnover: $11.74 bln Volume: 8.52 bln shares Day's high: 16,277.1 Day's low: 15,785.34 Advanced: 145 Declined: 493 Unchanged: 269 December futures: 15,770 (- 460) January futures: 15,855 (- 455)