Hong Kong stocks slump 3.5% in morning session

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

HONG KONG, Feb. 24 (Chinese media) -- Hong Kong stock market widened its losses in the morning session and tumbled 461.46 points, or 3.5 percent, to finish Tuesday's morning session at 12,713.64 as Wall Street fell more than 3 percent to its 1997 level overnight.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index slumped 385.81 points, or 2.93 percent, to open at 12,789.29 and lost as much as 540.26 points, or 4.1 percent, to half-day low 12,634.84 before narrowing the losses towards morning break.

Half-day turnover stood at 21.66 billion HK dollars (2.79 billion U.S. dollars).