Hong Kong stocks up as sentiment buoyed by US tax reform

Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index ended Monday firmer while China's H-shares index also closed higher, with sentiment in Asia boosted by expectations US lawmakers will pass a long-awaited tax bill. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 202.30 points, or 0.7 percent, at 29,050.41. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.43 percent to 11,415.13. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.9 percent while the IT sector rose 0.74 percent, the financial sector was 0.96 percent higher and property sector rose 0.81 percent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd up 4.24 percent, while the biggest loser was Sino Land Co Ltd which was down 2.51 percent. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.07 percent at 3,268.3296 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.12 percent.