Hong Kong Stocks Struggle After Four Days Of Losses

HONG KONG – Hong Kong stocks struggled to stay above the water on Friday after four straight day of losses, with the Hang Seng Index off 0.1%. Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchange & Clearing Ltd. dropped 0.9%, poised to fall for a sixth day in a row, as investors reacted to lower-than-expected volumes in the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect program. Brokerage firms were also broadly weaker, as Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. declined 1.1%, Haitong Securities Co. retreated 1%, and Shenyin Wanguo HK Ltd. pulled back 0.5%. Most Macau gaming stocks posted losses, as Sands China Ltd. dropped 1%, SJM Holdings Ltd. gave up 0.9%, and Wynn Macau Ltd. slid 2.3% after a Wall Street Journal report said U.S. authorities were probing possible money-laundering violations involving the parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd. . Among major blue chips, HSBC Holdings PLC dropped 0.7%, online major Tencent Holdings Ltd. slipped 0.2%, and telecoms giant China Mobile Ltd. rose 0.9%. Meanwhile, China Railway Construction Corp. , one of China's largest construction companies, climbed 2.9% after it signed the country's biggest overseas contract in history with Nigeria for nearly $12 billion. China Railway Group Ltd. also rose, trading 2.4% higher. Over on the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.2% lower.

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