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China Mobile, Unicom stocks near multi-year lows

HONG KONG: Shares for the listed units of China's mobile phone duopoly flirted with multi-year lows on Monday amid a broader market sell-off and lingering concerns over growing competition in China's wireless market.

Shares of China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd, the world's largest mobile phone company by subscribers, sank as low as HK$15.40 during the morning session, approaching a two-year low of HK$15.30 reached earlier this month.

The stock was down 3.42 percent at HK$15.55 at the midday break in Hong Kong, compared with a 2.70 percent drop for the broader Hang Seng Index.

Meantime, shares for China Mobile's chief rival, China Unicom Ltd sank as low as HK$4.20, approaching an all-time low of HK$4.10 reached last October when investors were concerned over the progress of the company's new CDMA phone network.

Unicom shares ended the morning session down 2.86 percent at HK$4.25.

The shares of the two companies have dropped steadily since mid-march over concerns about growing competition from a low-priced wireless phone alternative being aggressively promoted by China's two fixed-line carriers, China Telecom Corp Ltd and China Netcom.-Reuters