ZTE Corp and China Communications Services Corp fell by records in Hong Kong trading yesterday on concern sales will be hurt by a government order for domestic carriers to restrict spending on new telephone networks.

ZTE, China's biggest publicly traded maker of network gear, fell 24 percent to close at HK$18.50 (US$2.38), the biggest drop since its listing in December 2004. China Communications, the nation's largest builder of phone networks, dropped 33 percent to HK$3.24, the most since the stock first traded in December 2006, Bloomberg News reported.

China on Monday ordered its phone companies to grant access to each other's networks to ensure "disciplined" spending. China Telecom Corp and China Unicom Ltd earlier said they planned to spend US$26 billion over three years to expand their networks to compete with China Mobile Ltd.

(Shanghai Daily October 9, 2008)