Hong Kong stocks had solid gains on Thursday, boosted by buying of Chinese shares as some investors built positions ahead of next week's reopening of the China market. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.7 percent at 23,952.50 points and the China Enterprises Index gained 1.4 percent - its biggest one-day gain since September 19 - to 9,947.10 points. China's stock market is closed all this week for the National Day holiday. It reopens on Monday.
Helping lift Hong Kong indexes were resource and financial shares, tracking an overnight surge in oil prices. Hong Kong financial sub-index rose 1 percent. Shares of PetroChina climbed 4.1 percent to close at their highest since June 10. China Shenhua rose 3.3 percent and China Life by 3.9 percent.
Galaxy Entertainment Group shares jumped 3.8 pct to reach their highest close since August 2015 after Nomura raised its target price for the stock. Shares of China's Lenovo Group Ltd rose 1.5 percent on media reports that it is in talks to bring Fujitsu Ltd's personal computer business under its control.