Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: REFILE-Hong Kong shares seen lower; oil issues to weigh

Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

REFILE-Hong Kong shares seen lower; oil issues to weigh Mar 29th 2012, 01:04 Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:04pm EDT (Refiles to fix dateline) HONG KONG, March 29 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares could start lower on Thursday, dragged by weakness in oil-related sectors on lower oil prices amid an increase in U.S. inventories. Bank of China Ltd, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, CITIC Securities Co Ltd, PetroChina Co Ltd, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd are among a slew of companies reporting earnings on Thursday. On Wednesday, the China Enterprises Index of the top mainland listings lost 1 percent, while the broader Hang Seng Index slipped 0.8 percent. Short selling interest accounted for 8.8 percent of total turnover in Hong Kong on Wednesday, a sharp drop from Tuesday's 12.2 percent and the lowest since March 14. Turnover stayed lackluster, 14 percent shy of its 20-day moving average. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's KOSPI were both down around 0.6 percent at 0050 GMT. FACTORS TO WATCH: * Hong Kong's leader-elect on Wednesday said his government would launch a pilot project to build middle-class housing for residents only, hoping to cool soaring property prices that have sparked a backlash against unlimited sales to overseas buyers. * China's top offshore oil producer, CNOOC Ltd, posted a 29 percent rise in 2011 net profit, matching forecasts and hitting a record, on soaring crude oil prices and despite flat output caused by an oil spill. * Bank of Communications , China's fifth-biggest lender, posted a better-than-expected 30 percent rise in quarterly earnings, and said it faced headwinds as a slowing Chinese economy saps loan demand and threatens asset quality. * China's ZTE Corp , the world's fourth-largest handset producer and fifth-ranked telecoms equipment maker, posted a third straight fall in quarterly profit mainly due to weak telecoms spending and foreign exchange losses. * Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd, the Chinese partner of German luxury carmaker BMW AG, aims to sell 150,000 BMW sedans this year, up nearly 40 percent from 2011, its chairman Wu Xiaoan said on Wednesday. * A unit of Bank of China , one of China's big-four state-owned banks, has applied for membership of the London Metal Exchange, the LME said on Wednesday. * Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd, China's No.2 automaker, expects its vehicle sales to rise about 15 percent this year, outperforming its forecast for an 8 percent increase in sales for the industry, its chairman said on Wednesday. * Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd , China's top copper producer, said on Wednesday that it hopes Afghanistan's Aynak copper mine will begin production between 2014 and 2016. (Reporting by Clement Tan and Alison Leung; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions