Hong Kong shares closed lower on Monday, as investors largely shrugged off data showing profits at China's industrial firms continued to grow at a robust pace last month despite a slight cooling from a sizzling September.

At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 180.13 points or 0.6 per cent at 29,686.19. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 1.14 per cent to 11,772.27.

The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.1 per cent, while the IT sector dipped 1.3 per cent, the financial sector was 0.76 per cent lower and property sector dipped 0.48 per cent.

The top gainer on Hang Seng was WH Group Ltd up 2.22 per cent, while the biggest loser was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd which was down 4.53 per cent.

China's main Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.92 per cent at 3,322.8308 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 1.3 per cent.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.80 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.24 per cent.

The yuan was quoted at 6.5992 per US dollar at 08:11 GMT, 0.05 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.6028.

So far this year, the Hang Seng index is up 35.75 per cent, while China's H-share index is up 26.8 per cent. The Hang Seng has risen 5.74 per cent this month.

Top gainers among H-shares were China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd up 0.82 per cent, followed by PetroChina Co Ltd gaining 0.37 per cent and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp up by 0.18 per cent.

The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were New China Life Insurance Co Ltd which was down 4.12 per cent, Byd Co Ltd which fell 3.4 per cent and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd down by 3.4 per cent.

About 1.53 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 79.7 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.92 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.58 billion.

At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 30.21 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

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