HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Hong Kong shares ended lower Friday, tracking Wall Street's overnight decline, as investors fret over slowing economic growth as well as the lingering European debt crisis. Energy producers and Chinese lenders led the decline. The blue chip Hang Seng Index fell 521.58 points, or 2.7%, to 18,586.23 after trading between 18,511.42 and 18,840.93 during the session. The index fell 2.38% this week. Market volume totaled HK$54.61 billion, up from HK$48.83 billion Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.6% to 11997.70 Thursday, after a summit investors hoped could help stem Europe's economic turmoil got off to a rocky start and the European Central Bank declined to enact aggressive new bond purchases. "The local stock market has already priced in positive news such as the latest reserve-requirement-ratio cut by Beijing. Without further catalysts the stock market will likely trade downward amid rising external uncertainties in Europe and in the U.S.," said Linus Yip, a strategist at brokerage First Shanghai Securities. He tipped the index to likely test 18,000 levels with daily turnover continuing to shrink towards the end of 2011. China's ICBC fell 4.1% to HK$4.70, while Bank of Communications ended 3.8% lower at HK$5.3. Bank of China also retreated 2.8% to HK$2.80. Energy firms fell, too, as oil prices retracted. Offshore oil producer Cnooc fell 3.5% to HK$14.78 and Chinese producer PetroChina was down 4.0% at HK$9.47. At 0800 GMT, January Nymex crude oil futures were down US$0.66 at $97.68 per barrel on Globex. All but one blue chip were lower on broad-based weakness, because of jitters after ECB president Draghi's rejection of a significant increase in the bank's bond purchases. The news more than offset the positive impact from a lower-than-expected consumer price index reading in China, which rose 4.2% in November from a year earlier, sharply slower than a 5.5% on-year rise in October, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. KGI Asia's Chief Operating Officer Ben Kwong noted that the latest mainland CPI data suggested inflation pressure is easing, indicating further monetary relaxation. Emerging markets-focused Standard Chartered was down 1.5% at HK$172.20, weighed by Chief Executive Peter Sands' expectations Friday that 2011 revenue growth will slow to slightly below 10% as it is hit by a fall in Asian exchange rates in the fourth quarter. The bank had forecast double-digit growth earlier in the year. -By Joanne Chiu, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; joanne.chiu@dowjones.com

Source