Hong Kong share prices closed up 1.88 percent on Thursday tracking gains in Shanghai, dealers said. The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 374.63 points to close at 20,328.86 on turnover worth 57.22 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.38 billion US). Gains were led by local property counters on the back of a buoyant residential property market. However, analysts said it was unlikely the index has resumed its uptrend following the 5.3 percent decline seen since August 11.
They added that trade would remain volatile in the coming sessions and closely track the Shanghai stock market, which some market watchers say has influenced the performance of regional bourses. Shanghai surged 4.5 percent Thursday, recovering slightly from a 20 percent sell-off since reaching its year-to-date high earlier this month.
"Confidence is yet to resume, with still high unpredictability over the China bourses," Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB KayHian, told Dow Jones Newswires. Chinese developers were up, with Agile Property rising 2.2 percent to 9.46 Hong Kong dollars and Guangzhou R&F Properties up 0.7 percent at 15.14.
But local developers were the day's biggest blue chip gainers, with Hang Lung Properties surging 5.1 percent to 25.95, Cheung Kong Holdings rising 4.2 percent to 97.80, and Sun Hung Kai Properties up 3.9 percent at 109.50. Heavyweight China Mobile fell 0.2 percent to 82.85 after reporting profit growth in the first half slowed sharply to 1.5 percent from a year earlier as competition intensified.
Comments
Comments are closed.