It was another day of sleepy trade in the Hong Kong market yesterday but a little action is expected today as investors begin trading in the future of the MTR.
The Hang Seng Index finished the day 48.36 points or 0.45 per cent lower at 10,608.98. Turnover was HK$6.11 billion.
'We had a bounce on Wall Street but it's difficult for Hong Kong because there is so much fund raising ahead so it was already a very good performance to hold steady as the bias is on the downside,' said Alex Wong, the research head at OSK Asia Research.
Next week sees the release of about $8 billion of government-held shares under the Tracker Fund tap mechanism. This is keeping many players on the sidelines, believing that with the lure of cheaper blue chips on the horizon, there is no need to buy any now. Following the Tracker Fund are the listings of the Bank of China's Hong Kong operations and Cheung Kong's CK Life Sciences International Holdings - both expected next month.
On top of these overhangs is the litany of problems which have been facing the Hong Kong market, ranging from a dismal economy to the poor performance of overseas markets.
Among the blue chips, downward pressure was piled on by a 0.56 per cent drop in HSBC to $88.75.
