Goldman downgrade triggers sell-off in banking counters

Goldman Sachs has downgraded the Hong Kong banking sector amid the atypical pneumonia crisis, triggering a sell-off among banking shares.

......Mr Ramos said in a report. "While dividend yields remain attractive, we see less earnings resilience in 2003 as pressures mount."......

.....Standard & Poor's also issued a report yesterday warning: "Sars is......

Banking shares came under pressure after the reports, with Bank of China (HK) falling 1.86 per cent to HK$7.90 after Goldman downgraded the stock to "in-line" from "outperform".

Goldman also cut this year's earnings forecast for BOC (HK) by 22.7 per cent, after including a HK$1.49 billion write-off for property revaluations.

Goldman said it preferred banks such as Standard Chartered, which offered diversity and insulation from the Sars crisis.......