¡¡¡¡HONG KONG, February 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Hong Kong stocks ended marginally higher on Thursday, surrendering most of their early gains, as investors grew cautious ahead of unemployment figures due to be released after the market close.

¡¡¡¡The benchmark Hang Seng index edged up 39.84 points, or 0.37 percent, to close at 10,788.90 after rising to 10,871.10 in early trade following a rebound in the U.S. market, with a market turnover at 6.3 billion HK dollars (808 million U.S. dollars).

¡¡¡¡The index is down 5.34 percent in 2002 so far, underperforming most Asian markets.

¡¡¡¡Banking giant HSBC Holdings, the biggest blue-chip stock, slipped 0.29 percent to 86.75 HK dollars as investors became nervous about its exposure to bad debts after its rival Standard Chartered Bank reported a 55 percent surge in its bad debt provisions in 2001.

¡¡¡¡Three of the four sub-indices posted gains, with Utilities moving up the most at 1.39 percent, followed by Commerce & Industry at 0.57 percent, and Property at 0.49 percent.

¡¡¡¡Only Finance lost ground, moving down at 0.14 percent.

¡¡¡¡Of the Chinese mainland-related stocks, the Hang Seng Mainland Composite index and Hang Seng China-affiliated Corporations Index moved up by 0.64 percent and 0.87 percent, respectively, while theHang Seng China Enterprises index moved marginally down by 0.91 percent. Enditem

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