Hong Kong stocks gained 0.46 percent on Monday with China insurance and property shares the top performing sectors in quiet trade ahead of the US Republican convention and jobs report at the end of the week.
London markets were also closed for a bank holiday, further dampening investor interest.
"There hasn't been much action. We accumulated gains over the past week and people may take some time to digest them," said Herbert Lau, research director at Celestial Asia Securities.
The blue chip Hang Seng Index ended up 59.36 points at 12,877.78. Volume was below recent averages with HK$9.5 billion (US $1.21 billion) changing hands.
China enterprise stocks or H-shares outperformed Hong Kong blue chips, rising 1.69 percent to 4,306.78, thanks largely to a jump in insurance firm China Life following its first half results.
China Life Insurance Co Ltd, which accounts for over six percent of the weighting of the H-share index, rose 6.4 percent to HK$4.575.
Its first-half profit fell 10 percent due to losses on its investment portfolio. But analysts said they were pleased with results from its core insurance sales business.
Traders said they expected H-shares to outperform blue chips in coming weeks on rotational buying and with many analysts upgrading earnings forecasts for Chinese firms.
"Last week H-shares were laggards but it looks like we'll see switching in weeks to come with analysts upgrading their growth forecasts for the counters," said Alex Tang, research director at Core Pacific Yamaichi International.
Tang said China's recent measures to cool its red-hot economic growth had less impact on Hong Kong-listed counters than many investors had initially thought.
China's largest non-life insurer, PICC Property and Casualty Ltd was also a top H-share gainer, rising 3.09 percent to HK$2.50.
Shares in Asia's largest oil refiner, Sinopec Corp, finished 1.67 percent higher at HK$3.05 after the firm said its second-quarter net profit surged more than 90 percent as the nation ran more power generators and cars while crude oil prices climbed.
Among smaller counters, Geely Automobile holdings Ltd jumped nearly 9 percent to HK$0.425, after posting stronger than expected first half profits thanks to its car manufacturing associates.
Geely, which makes low-priced cars in China, earned a net profit of HK$54.43 million versus HK$903,000 in the same period last year when it started its auto business.
Blue chip property firms continued to outperform despite slack housing sales at the weekend due to a lack of new properties coming to market and poor weather.
Traders said Friday's robust second quarter GDP figures provided a strong incentive to buy property stocks, many of which have already outperformed the general market so far this year.
Property-heavy conglomerate Wharf Holdings, which owns large shopping malls and office towers, rose 1.18 percent to HK$25.80. Swire Pacific, which has a waiting list of tenants for space in its large shopping malls, rose 1.37 percent to HK$55.50.
China computer maker and index laggard Lenovo Group was also a strong performer, rising 4.26 percent to HK$2.45.
Lenovo has posted strong gains in the past month but remains the Hang Seng's worst performing stock so far this year.
It is down nearly thirty percent on a poor business outlook for computer sales in China.
Comments
Comments are closed.