Hong Kong blue chips climb

Hong Kong blue chips rose 0.5 percent on Friday to end a five-session losing streak, but China issues slid to an 11-week closing low as mainland insurers extended losses. "The confidence of investors is still weak," said Ernie Hon, strategist at ICEA Securities.
"When there's a rebound, people offload their shareholdings. This kind of correction will take at least a month." Hon said that while the market should find support at 18,600, it may trim some 2,000 points from its record set in January.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed up 95.41 points to end at 19,442.01 for a weekly loss of 6.1 percent. The China Enterprises index of H shares, or Hong Kong-listed shares in mainland companies, now in their sixth straight losing session, ended at 8,985.91, losing nearly 10 percent for the week.
China's main stock index closed up 1.2 percent. Turnover was HK$53.1 billion (US $6.8 billion) compared with Thursday's HK$55.5 billion. Among mainland financials, China Life dropped 0.7 percent to HK$20.05 and rival Ping An Insurance, the biggest drag on the H shares, tumbled 2.8 percent to HK$33.35. Bank of China shed 0.5 percent to HK$3.67.
Oil issues climbed, with PetroChina, the biggest boost to the H shares, rising 0.8 percent to HK$9.0. CNOOC Ltd jumped nearly 2 percent to HK$6.33. China Mobile edged up 0.5 percent to HK$71.60. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd slumped a further 1.9 percent to HK$76.10 in heavy trade as investors remained cautious on the outlook for global equity markets.
Lenovo Inc plunged 5.6 percent to HK$2.86 after the computer maker and Sanyo Electric Co Ltd were voluntarily recalling about 100,000 packs of Lithium-ion batteries used in ThinkPad notebook computers, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said.
Pacific Century Insurance Holdings surged 35.5 percent to HK$7.83 in resumed trade after Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis said on Thursday it would pay about US $453 million (HK$3.53 billion) for a controlling 50.48 percent stake in the company.