THE Hang Seng Index yesterday drifted down 27.23 points to 7,141.11 against a background of thin trade and nervous speculation about the outcome of British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd's meeting in Beijing.
Although turnover was more than double the $3.01 billion chalked up on Tuesday - the early figure was $6.77 billion - stripping out shares and warrants in Miramar Hotel left only $2.57 billion.
Barclays de Zoete Wedd director K.S. Ng said: ''The movement of the market tells us people are not putting a very high expectation on Friday's meeting.
''They think the chances of having a major decision within two days is not likely, so the market in the past few days has drifted downwards a little bit because of the lack of any other positive news.'' Others put a more positive slant on the meeting, giving a two-way pull to the day.
Vickers Ballas director Barry Yates said the bears were noting the lack of substance from the seventh round of talks and low expectations of any door being opened by Mr Hurd in Beijing, while the optimists thought behind-the-scenes talks might be moving ahead faster than was apparent.
He pointed to the swollen premium on the index futures, which were trading at a premium of 100 points at one stage. July futures closed at 7,242 points and August at 7,248.