Hong Kong Stocks Flat Ahead Of Data; China Mobile Falls

Hong Kong stocks held their ground early Tuesday ahead of a slate of Chinese economic data due out later in the morning, including third-quarter economic growth, as well as industrial production and retail sales for September. The Hang Seng Index sat flat in initial moves, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slipped 0.2%, and over on the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite also fell 0.2%. Mainland banks were broadly lower, with China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of Communications Co. down 0.4% each, while Bank of China Ltd. lost 0.6%. Shares of China Mobile Ltd. dropped 1.1% after posting an almost 10% decrease in its nine-month net profit, hit by tight competition and investment spending. Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd. , meanwhile, rose 0.9% following an anonymously sourced report on news website Benzinga.com that it was planning a bid for BlackBerry Ltd. . The report helped send BlackBerry shares to a more-than-8% gain in Monday trading on the Nasdaq.