Hong Kong shares fell for the first time in four sessions on Thursday, with China Unicom among the top drags on the benchmark Hang Seng Index and Chinese inflation data giving investors little incentive to chase a New Year rally further.
China Unicom , the country's second-largest mobile operator, was also among the top drags on Shanghai, extending losses on concern over increasing competition and earnings risks.
The Hang Seng Index finished down 0.3% at 19,095.4 points, close to the bottom of its trading range, after testing resistance seen at 19,242, its December peak.
Trading was choppy in Hong Kong and the mainland, with the 2,300-level continuing to hinder the Shanghai Composite Index , which closed down 0.1% at 2,275 points in the lowest A-share turnover this week to date.
China will post fourth-quarter GDP data on January 17, along with December industrial output, investment and retail sales data, which could spur gains and help benchmark indices break technical resistance.
Data on Thursday showed China's inflation rate eased to a 15-month low in December, but came in just above market expectations, crimping risk appetite after the Hang Seng Index and the China Enterprises Index had gained 3 and 5.3%, respectively, in the first three sessions of the week.
"The rally is starting to run out of steam today. Some investors had clearly got a little ahead of themselves in the last few days," said Jackson Wong, vice-president for equity sales at Tanrich Securities.
China Unicom shed 4.4% in Hong Kong in more than five times its 30-day average volume, sinking below its 200-day moving average to the lowest since October 24. It has lost 9.3% in the last three sessions.
In Shanghai, China Unicom fell 3% in thrice its 30-day average volume — its worst loss in a month.
A 44% gain in Hong Kong last year made China Unicom the top performer among Hang Seng Index components as investors sought the relative safety of its subscriber momentum amid uncertainty over the pace of the slowdown in China's economy.
But competition in the already fierce mainland telecoms market is intensifying, with smaller rival China Telecom Corp Ltd gaining iPhone operating rights in mainland China and bigger rival China Mobile Ltd getting better quality smartphones, CLSA analysts wrote in a note dated January 11.
China Unicom is trading at 26.4 times forward 12-month earnings in Hong Kong after its strong 2011 gains, which is 50% more than its historical median, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS BUYING INTO MATERIAL NAMES
Bucking the weakness in markets on Thursday were solar stocks, with investors cheered by figures showing a dramatic rise in new solar installations in Germany in the fourth quarter and higher prices for polysilicon, a key raw material.
In Hong Kong, GCL-Poly Energy Holdings soared 13.7%, Trony Solar Holdings rose 6.5% and Solargiga Energy Holdings jumped 15.8%.
Chinese material names also extended their recent strength. Angang Steel gained 3.2%, while Anhui Conch Cement gained 0.6%. Anhui Conch reported earlier in the day that it expected 2011 net profit to jump more than 80%.
Market watchers said some institutional investors had started to inch back into growth-sensitive sectors, which were among the hardest hit among Chinese stocks that suffered last year in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Some investors are optimistic that a combination of low valuations and the possibility that earnings growth may exceed weakened expectations and lift these battered names.
Materials plays have seen the biggest cuts in earnings expectations over the past three months as fears of a China slowdown weighed on commodity prices, according to Starmine.
