Hong Kong shares soar

Hong Kong stocks erased morning losses on Friday to close up 0.29 percent as investors bought recent decliners such as computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd and looked to upcoming initial public offerings.
Port investor China Merchants Holdings (International) Co Ltd jumped 6 percent to HK$23.90 a day after ABN Amro Rothschild said Tianjin Port Development Holdings had priced its hugely popular IPO at the top of an expected range.
The benchmark Hang Seng index closed at 16,313.36 for a weekly loss of 3.5 percent. The index is still up nearly 10 percent so far this year.
"The market was in an oversold position, and valuation at this point was attractive," said Ernie Hon, strategist at ICEA Securities Asia.
"The rebound was not surprising - after the last few days' tumble, the bad news has been factored in."
Some said the market was likely to stay quiet in coming days after recent volatility.
"After sharp falls in the last few days, investors are likely to stay on the sidelines," said Lillian Co, director at Baring Asset Management (Asia) Ltd. "I don't expect big moves in the market unless there's more bad news from the US," she said, adding that more bad news was unlikely, given that interest rate fears had been reflected.
Investors piled into Lenovo, which rose nearly 3 percent to HK$2.65. Macquarie Research upgraded the computer maker to "neutral" following a recent correction in the stock. Lenovo has fallen 26 percent so far this year.
Investors sold off mainland real estate shares as they worried China could take further steps to cool its property boom after the nation's urban fixed-asset investment in the first four months of 2006 rose 29.6 percent from a year ago.
Developers China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd sank nearly 4 percent to HK$4.30 and Hopson Development Holdings Ltd slumped 4.1 percent to HK$17.35.
Mainland insurers maintained their upward trend, with favourite China Life Insurance Co Ltd (China) striking new highs before settling at HK$12.85 for a 2.4 percent gain. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd climbed 2.9 percent to HK$23.2.
Other H-share gainers included Kingway Brewery Holdings Ltd, which rose 2.2 percent to HK$3.525 after Dutch brewer Heineken N.V.'s partner in China said on Friday it planned to invest US $50 million to build a brewery and develop a beer-making business in China's Chengdu. Turnover was HK$29.4 billion (US $3.8 billion), down 22 percent from Thursday's HK$37.6 billion.