HONG KONG

Stocks Buffeted: Hong Kong stocks took a roller-coaster ride Friday as panic selling, bargain hunting and profit taking in turn buffeted prices. The blue chip Hang Seng index closed 25.76 points down, at 4,600.08, after a late flurry of profit taking, but it was well off a 50-point tumble in the opening minutes of trade. Fallout from a Reuter report that China’s former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang had been acquitted of charges--which helped push the index 75 points higher on Thursday--and a subsequent official denial that came too late for the day’s trading, still dominated sentiment. The Zhao report prompted speculation that the disgraced leader, overthrown during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing, might stage a comeback and push ahead with political and economic reforms.