Hong Kong shares closed slightly lower Wednesday with the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 10.84 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,742.30 after trading between 15,653. 90 and 15,808.18 during the session.

Turnover was 34.27 billion HK dollars (about 4.2 U.S. dollars), up from 34.19 billion HK dollars Friday. Local financial markets were closed Monday and Tuesday for the Chinese New Year holiday.

Most property companies ended lower. Cheung Kong fell 0.7 percent to 82.7 HK dollars, Sun Hung Kai Properties ended 1 percent lower at 79.55 HK dollars, while Hang Lung Properties closed unchanged at 15.1 HK dollars.

BOC fell 0.6 percent to 15.45 HK dollars, HSBC ended 0.8 percent lower at 128.7 HK dollars, while Bank of East Asia fell 0. 4 percent to 24.05 HK dollars.

Heavyweight China Mobile was up 0.8 percent at 38 HK dollars, China Merchants rose 3.2 percent to 20.8 HK dollars, and China Resources Enterprise ended 3.3 percent higher at 17.05 HK dollars.

For refiners, Sinopec closed 5.8 percent higher at 5 HK dollars, blue chip CNOOC rose 3.8 percent to 6.8 HK dollars, while PetroChina was up 3.3 percent at 7.8 HK dollars.

Source: Xinhua