Index moves lower as players wait for Florida vote recount in US election

Hong Kong shares fell in thin turnover yesterday as counting problems in faraway Florida made it hard to do the math on local stock prices.

The Hang Seng Index fell 149.33 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 15,504.8 in trade that saw HK$8.38 billion of shares change hands, 32.96 per cent less than on Wednesday.

'Everyone is waiting for the result of the presidential election in the United States. The US market had a similar situation,' Pacific Challenge Securities research director Ricky Tam Siu-hing said.

Turnover was subdued on Wall Street after Democrat presidential candidate Al Gore requested a recount of votes in the state of Florida, which earlier reported that Republican George Bush had won by about 2,000 votes.

Kim Eng Securities research head Stephen Brown said trade could be quiet in Hong Kong again today if there was another delay in the result.

'It looks like Gore's going to go through the whole process, courts and everything,' Mr Brown said on reports Mr Gore might appeal, which could delay the outcome indefinitely.

However, Mr Brown believed the 'uncertainty would soon evaporate because everyone knows at the end of the day a new president can't do much anyway, not immediately'.