Shares in China Mobile, the world's largest telecoms operator, ended at a 15-month closing low on Thursday, dragging down the sector as investors fled a falling market and uncertainty about an ongoing government-led industry shake-up.

Some investors are worried about reports that Beijing will soon impose nationwide regulations unfavourable to China Mobile but benefiting its rivals, while some analysts contend the firm would fight to preserve its current dominance of the market.

China Mobile, which controls two-thirds of the country's cellular market, soon has to begin testing a policy in two cities that will let users keep their cellphone numbers when they switch to another carrier, according to Chinese media reports.

Some analysts expect that such a scheme, which may be rolled out in full by 2009, is a one-way affair, barring users from retaining their numbers when they switch to China Mobile, but other analysts said the market has already reacted to the scheme.

"China Mobile serves as a proxy somewhat -- if people think the market will go down, it will go down, but definitely there's been no fundamental change to two or three weeks ago" said CIMB GK analyst Bertram Lai.

"The market has been speculating about so-called one-way mobile number portability, so it's probably the most likely asymmetrical policy that can be brought to bear -- if anything it should have already been factored into the share price," Lam added.

China Mobile ended down nearly 5.29 percent at HK$77.00.

Source:Reuters