Hong Kong stocks open lower

HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks opened lower on Thursday despite a move by the European Central Bank to provide cheap loans to banks to keep credit flowing in debt-hit Europe.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 79.31 points, or 0.43 percent, at 18,337.14 in early trade.

A total of 523 banks on Wednesday borrowed a record 489.2 billion euros ($641 billion) on which the ECB will charge annual interest of just one percent over three years.