HK stocks close lower on mild profit-taking

Hong Kong stocks dipped 57.07 points, or 0.22%, to close at 26,183.95 on Monday, due to mild profit-taking.

Turnover went down to 74.03 billion HK dollars (9.50 billion U.S. dollars) from Friday's 89.06 billion HK dollars (11.42 billion U.S. dollars), as the market entered its doldrums in typical May and June period.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened firmer following better- than-expected U.S. jobs and factory orders data, but lost steam by midmorning.

There were rumors about restructuring in the telecom industry on the Chinese mainland. China Mobile was down 1.25%, China Unicom up 0.825%, Netcom down 1.01% after rises, China Telecom unchanged.

Among local bank stocks, HSBC was flat, Hang Seng Bank up 0.19%, BOC HK up 0.24%, Bank of East Asia down 0.56%, and StanChart down 0.7% after raising its shareholding in Vietnam ACB Bank.

Local property developers SHK PPT and NWS Holdings added 1.28% and 1.38% respectively as units of Harbor Place jointly developed by the two companies were launched for sales. Sino Land and MTR Corporation climbed 2.33% and remained unchanged respectively despite the news that units of The Palazzo,a project they cooperated to develop, were allegedly sold in violation of guidance.

Most of the mainland insurers were in positive territory. China Life was up 0.57%, Ping An flat, PICC P&C up 0.9%.

The six mainland banks developed individually. CCB was down 0.7percent, ICBC down 1.91%, Bank of China flat, Bankcomm up 0. 35%, CM Bank unchanged and CITIC Bank down 2.27%.

With International oil futures rebounding, CNOOC, mainland's largest offshore oil producer, was up 1.05%, while the other two mainland oil giants PetroChina and Sinopec Corp were up 0.17% and 0.23%, respectively.

Due to rising gold price, Zijin Mining was up 0.42% and Zhaojin Gold Mining up 4.25%.

E-commerce giant Alibaba.com slumped more than four% on worries that first-quarter results, due Tuesday, may have been affected by a global economic slowdown.

News that Microsoft abandoned its bid for Yahoo also had some psychological impact, dealers and analysts said.