Hong Kong's key share index edged up on Monday, lifted by the business restructuring plan announced late on Friday by Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man. Li plans to split his conglomerate into his two largest listed companies, one focusing on property and the other on telecoms, retail and energy. Shares of one of the companies, Cheung Kong (Holdings) jumped 15 percent while the other, Hutchison Whampoa, surged 13 percent on Monday.
"Li's reconstructuring boosted the share price of Hong Kong's property sector today, and I expect (Cheung Kong's) rise will last for a week," said Andy Wong, senior investment analyst at Harris Fraser in Hong Kong. The Hang Seng index rose 0.5 percent, to 24,026.46 points, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.5 percent, to 12,016.66 points. Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were Cypress Jade Agricultural Holdings Ltd, down 28.7 percent at HK$0.08, Bank Of China, down 1.1 percent at HK$4.39 and Unity Investment Holdings Ltd, up 2.0 percent at HK$0.05. Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.87 billion yuan ($140.28 million) of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.