HONG KONG—Hong Kong's key stock index fell its second straight session Thursday, dragged lower by an overnight loss on Wall Street that came as crude oil pushed to another record.
Investors are concerned that global stock markets' recent gains might have been premature while consumers around the world start to grapple with rising energy and food costs.
The Hang Seng Index fell 160.42 points, or 0.6 percent, to 25,449.79. The index fell 2.5 percent Wednesday and is now down 8.5 percent since the start of this year.
Analysts said they expect more volatility for the local market in the near term. They said economic performance and market movements in the U.S. and China will likely be the key factors driving investor sentiment in the near term.
Thursday's decline in the Hang Seng Index was partly due to a fall in the Dow Jones industrial average Wednesday.
The Dow fell 1.6 percent to 12,814.35 points. But a 2.2 percent rise in the Shanghai Composite Index on bargain hunting helped narrow the Hang Seng's losses.
Among blue chip banks, Bank of Communications fell 1.5 percent to 10.68 Hong Kong dollars. ICBC also declined 1.5 percent, to HK$6.01, and China Construction Bank fell 0.3 percent to HK$6.95.
Bucking the trend, conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa rose 1.9 percent to HK$79.55 after investment bank CLSA upgraded its rating for the company.
CLSA said the upgrade follows the incorporation of the company's newly acquired ports and recent land bank additions in China.
Crude oil futures hit a trading record near $124 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Chinese refiners and airlines again lost ground on worries about their increasing costs.
PetroChina fell 2.4 percent to HK$11.18. Sinopec fell 3.3 percent to HK$7.87.
China Eastern shares fell 2.6 percent to HK$3.39, China Southern fell 2.0 percent to HK$4.97 and Air China fell 2.2 percent to HK$5.72.
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