Hong Kong's key blue chips yesterday applied downward pressure in a market showing little inclination to fight for higher levels.
The Hang Seng Index fell 62.05 points or 0.53 per cent to close at 11.564.73. Turnover was a thin HK$6.24 billion.
'We've recently been very volatile so it's time to settle down a little. We're still not very bearish, there's just a lack of market-moving news,' said Alex Wong, the research director at OSK Asia Research.
The two biggest blue-chip stocks by weighting, HSBC and China Mobile, closed with losses of 0.52 per cent and 0.96 per cent, respectively.
Property stocks were looking weaker after last week's downgrades by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's. Among them, Hysan Development dropped 0.59 per cent while Swire Pacific fell 1.95 per cent as investors continued to use the news to take profits.
Dun Lee, an equity derivatives manager at Fimat, said the downgrades had led to the unwinding of positions after last month's rally.
