Hong Kong stocks close 0.15% higher

Hong Kong stocks went up 35.16 points, or 0.15 percent, to close on Monday at 23,038.80 points. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 23,090.94 and 22, 911.82. Turnover totaled 61.09 billion HK dollars (about 7.88 billion U.S. dollars), down from Monday's 96.34 billion HK dollars. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index ended up 15.60 points, or 0.15 percent, to close at 10,244.02. All of the four sub-indices gained grounds. The Utilities sub- index rose the most at 0.68 percent, followed by the Properties at 0.25 percent, the Commerce and Industry, 0.17 percent, while the Finance edged up 0.06 percent. The Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, lowered 0.56 percent at 80.35 HK dollars. Bank of East Asia, one of the largest local banks in Hong Kong, closed flat at 32.90 HK dollars. China Mobile, China's dominant mobile carrier, moved down 0.94 percent to 73.90 HK dollars, while another Chinese telecom giant China Unicom ended up 0.37 percent at 10.74 HK dollars. Local bourse operator HKEX surged 2.6 percent to 149.80 HK dollars. For the local property stocks, Sun Hung Kai, HK's largest property developer by market value, added 0.95 percent to 100.60 HK dollars. Cheung Kong properties, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, lost 0.66 percent to 135.70 HK dollars. As for mainland-based financial stocks, Bank of China ended flat at 3.51 HK dollars. Bank of Communications rose 0.98 percent to 5.13 HK dollars. China Construction Bank gained 0.73 percent to 5.51 HK dollars. ICBC ended 0.62 percent higher at 4.84 HK dollars. As for energy stocks, China's top refiner Sinopec ended down 0. 83 percent to 7.17 HK dollars. PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer closed flat at 8.85 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.75 HK dollar)