Hong Kong Stocks Fall Despite Gains In Rest Of Asia

LOS ANGELES – Despite gains for most of the major East Asia stock indexes Friday morning, Hong Kong stocks went the other way, with the Hang Seng Index down 0.5% -- extending Thursday's 0.2% dip -- while the H-share index fell 0.3%, even as the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% in early moves. The heavily weighted property developers traded mostly lower, as China Resources Land Ltd. slipped 0.9%, Henderson Land Development Co. lost 1%, and outside the benchmark index, Agile Property Holdings Ltd. fell 2.7% after announcing its October pre-sales. Financials were also broadly weaker, with Bank of Communications Co. losing 1%, China Construction Bank Corp. off 0.9%, and China Everbright Bank Co. down 1.9%. But Standard Chartered PLC rose 0.7% as The Wall Street Journal reported on comments from the chairman, John Peace, made earlier in the week. Peace reportedly told employees at a company town-hall meeting that the lender was revamping its strategy, but that its broader business model was "not broken." Stock in Lenovo Group Ltd. continued to lose ground, trading 3.9% lower after a sharp decline the previous session. And shares of Ping An Insurance Group Co. were placed on trading halt, pending the announcement of inside information.

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