Hong Kong stocks declined in thin trading yesterday as investors geared up for the Easter weekend, although some took a punt on firms due to report results today. The Hang Seng Index fell 49.72 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 10,786.92. Turnover remained light at HK$5.39 billion. 'It's quite typical to see a quiet market before a long weekend so activity slowed quite substantially,' said Marco Mak Tak-kwong, the research head at Tai Fook Securities. Brokers said that with or without the arrival of the Easter bunny, investors were largely unwilling to play the market. Although recent economic data fuelled belief that the United States economy is on the road to recovery, this has yet to be translated into improved corporate profits on either side of the Pacific Ocean. While the bulk of local blue-chip results have been released in the past few weeks, their mixed performance is keeping investors out of the market. 'They are providing no incentive to be in or out - the bad news is out there but no good news is coming in. There's lots of time [to trade] but not enough conviction,' said Antony Mak Siu-leung, a sales director at DBS Vickers Securities. Fimat equity derivatives manager Dun Lee said that he feared the Hang Seng Index's next move could be towards the 10,200 to 10,400-point territory as it had failed repeatedly to hold above the 11,000 level. 'Everyone is waiting for the same thing to happen. There's lots in the pipeline, people are waiting but it's not happening.' Today sees the release of full-year numbers from Television Broadcasts and mainland mobile-telephone operator China Unicom. Both stocks bucked the market trend yesterday, with TVB climbing 1.8 per cent to $33.80 and Unicom ending 0.69 per cent firmer at $7.25. Mr Marco Mak said he was expecting Unicom's net profit to climb 35 per cent - a figure largely in line with the market's expectations. Nonetheless, analysts said the firm's code division multiple access exposure could prove its Achilles heel despite a relatively buoyant mainland market. Rival China Mobile closed off 1.07 per cent at $22.95. Forefront International, a distributor for the Scania brand of trucks and heavy vehicles, ended sharply higher, by 9.14 per cent at $1.79. The firm placed 40 million shares at $2.95 each at the beginning of last month. Rumours that a major shareholder would be forced to sell to meet a margin call after buying up some of the placed shares saw the stock price plunge 45.19 per cent last week. This prompted a buy-back at the end of the week from the company as it tried to support the price. On Thursday and Friday the company bought 3.8 million shares at between $1.59 and $1.80 each. With the share price off so heavily, traders said that it was not surprising that bargain hunters should swoop in yesterday to take advantage of the depressed price. Davidw@scmp.com
