Selling emerges as players brace for post-attack economic data from US

Hong Kong stocks weakened yesterday after a brutal session on Wall Street and as rumblings in South America saw investors offloading their holdings in HSBC.

The Hang Seng Index fell 0.99 per cent to 10,076.43 points on a turnover of HK$7.36 billion.

Stocks fell heavily on Monday - the anniversary of the 1929 Wall Street crash - before the release of consumer confidence figures yesterday and third-quarter gross domestic product figures and unemployment data later this week.

Global markets are bracing themselves for the numbers, which are expected to paint a dismal picture of the health of the United States economy.

'The most significant thing is that the US is announcing a lot of figures this week and they will be affected by the September 11 aftermath,' said Antony Mak Siu-leung, the institutional sales head at DBS Vickers Ballas Securities.

'For the fourth quarter, which we're just stepping into, we won't see much improvement - maybe even more deterioration - so this year is a write-off and though there might be a recovery in the second quarter [of next year] it's yet to be seen. We have to see the worst before it gets better, which is why the market is trading in a range.'

Also weighing on the market were fears of an Argentinian debt default while a sell-off in Boeing and an ever-deepening financial crisis at energy trader Enron added to the downward pressure.