Hong Kong shares tumble

Hong Kong blue chips fell a further 4 percent on Friday because of sharp Wall Street losses and fears that a scheme to funnel investment from Chinese citizens to the city's stock market will bring in much less than originally expected.
Heavyweight favourite China Mobile was down 6 percent at one point, as the broad sell-off deleted gains from a strong rebound two days earlier. Hong Kong-listed mainland companies underperformed with a 4.3 percent loss as mainland lenders were knocked by fears that more interest rate rises by China's central bank would dampen their business growth.
News that China's central bank had ordered lenders in the southern city of Shenzhen to limit cash withdrawals by residents to curb fund flows to the city's stock market added to the negative mood.
Meanwhile, a spate of media and analyst reports on Friday said the amount of money mainland retail investors would be able to invest in the so-called 'through train' programme next year would be far less than the $60 billion touted by some analysts.
HSBC estimated only $27 billion would enter the Hong Kong stock market next year in the scheme. Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese firms rallied 87 percent from the August 20 announcement of the scheme to a peak on October 30, but have lost nearly half those gains since, as investors began to temper their expectations for the "through train" scheme.
"We probably got ahead of the story," said Tat Auyeung, fund manager at APEX Capital Management. "When liquidity isn't there, people focus on the fundamentals, global economics and inflation," he said. The market fell for a second straight day, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index closing below its 50-day moving average, ending 1,136.78 points lower at 27,614.43. It ended a volatile week down 4.1 percent.
The China Enterprises index of H shares, or Hong Kong-listed shares in mainland companies, fell 747.73 points to 16,737.73, below its 60-day moving average for a 5.5 percent weekly loss.
China Mobile, the world's top wireless carrier and the day's most active stock, ended down 4.6 percent at HK$133.20, having touched HK$131.30 during the day. Top oil producer PetroChina Co Ltd was off 4.5 percent to HK$14.6. Offshore oil specialist CNOOC Ltd tanked nearly 7 percent to HK$12.40.
Shares in HKEx, a barometer of market sentiment, were slammed 5 percent to HK$235, reversing Thursday's gains on its stellar third-quarter earnings. Among mainland lenders, China Construction Bank dropped nearly 5 percent to HK$7.44 and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China clocked a 5.2 percent loss to HK$6.07. Mainboard turnover was HK$138.3 billion (US $17.7 billion) compared to Thursday's HK$119.7 billion.