Hong Kong shares off highs on profit taking in properties

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Share prices were trading off their highs amid  profit-taking in property counters and concerns that U.S. stockmarkets might  see some declines after their rally overnight, dealers said.Gains in China Mobile helped prevent the benchmark index from falling  into negative territory, after its substantial losses seen in the previous  trading days, dealers said.At 3:28 pm, the Hang Seng Index was up 332.50 points at 12,396.29.The HSI property sub-index was up 8.13 points at 16,273.75.      Michael Ng, dealing director with Sassoon Securities, said: "The rally in  the morning was purely technical. Enthusiasm began to run out of steam with  investors worrying about the latest developments on Wall Street over the  weekend."Josephine Hui, director with Celestial Asia Securities, said: "It is  difficult to tell whether the DJIA could breach its key 10,000 point mark or  not later today. Even if it could, it is very unlikely that the Dow could  sustain that level amid a weak economic outlook."Hui added that sentiment remained cautious ahead of the release tonight  of U.S. non-farm payroll data, with players keen to take profits ahead of any  bad news over the weekend.China Mobile was up 3.10 hkd or 10.43 pct at 32.00 hkd on volume of 30.83  mln shares.Among property shares, Cheung Kong was unchanged at 80.50 hkd, Henderson  Land was down 0.10 hkd at 36.40 hkd, Sun Hung Kai Properties was unchanged at  71.50.New World Development shed 0.40 at 8.70, while Sino Land was unchanged at  3.25.

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