HONG KONG (AP) -- Shares of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong's oldest and most well-known trading company, were traded for the last time on the local stock exchange yesterday.

Jardines decided earlier this year to delist from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after Hong Kong market regulators refused to excuse it from local codes.

The company, which shocked this British colony when it moved its domicile to Bermuda in 1984, has its primary stock listing in London.

In 1992, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange agreed to allow the company to obtain a secondary listing in the territory.

In March this year, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission said allowing the company to be regulated only in Bermuda would not have sufficiently protected Jardines' investors in Hong Kong.

Jardines had said it would face "practical difficulties'' if it was governed by two sets of rules in Hong Kong and Bermuda.

Shares of the company fell by US 9.6 cents to close at US$7.1 yesterday.

Jardines and its associate companies will maintain their primary listing on the London stock exchange and their secondary listings in Singapore, Australia and Luxembourg.

Jardine Matheson decided to register its holding company in Bermuda because of uncertainty over Hong Kong's future after China takes over the colony in 1997.

The company was founded in the nearby Chinese city of Canton in 1832 by Scottish opium runners. It moved to Hong Kong in 1841 when the colony was established.