HONG KONG: China and Hong Kong stocks ended on a buoyant note on Friday as traders cheered Beijing’s sweeping steps to stabilise the crisis-hit property sector.

Led by homebuilders, most sectors advanced in the noon session after China announced a raft of measures spanning from allowing local governments to buy “some” apartments, relaxing mortgage rules, to pledging to deliver unfinished homes.

The steps have offset the stalling sentiment in the morning after disappointing retail sales and property data.

“We’ve seen increased urgency from policymakers to stabilise the housing market, which is welcome news after we saw April’s housing prices with the steepest month-on-month decline of the current cycle,” said Lynn Song, chief economist of Greater China at ING.

CSI 300 Real Estate index and Hong Kong-listed mainland property firms jumped 9% and 5%, respectively.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 1.01% at 3,154.03. The blue-chip CSI300 index was up 1.03%, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 2.14%, the consumer staples sector up 1.09%, the real estate index up 9.13% and the healthcare sub-index down 0.29%. The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 1.18% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 1.124%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 177.08 points, or 0.91%, at 19,553.61. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.92% to 6,934.7. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 0.7%, while the IT sector rose 1.36%, the financial sector ended 0.53% higher and the property sector rose 2.52%. Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.14%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed down 0.34%.