Hong Kong Stocks Fall Despite Gains In Rest Of Asia

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.