Hong Kong shares closed up on Thursday, led by a jump in energy shares as China raised retail prices of gasoline. The Hang Seng index rose 0.3 percent, to 23,374.40, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.5 percent, to 9,686.38 points. Most sectors were little changed, while energy shares climbed more than 2 percent, lifted by sharp gains in Chinese oil giants CNOOC, Sinopec and PetroChina on the back of higher oil prices.
China's state planning agency raised retail prices of gasoline starting Thursday after a rally in the international crude oil price, which hovered near a 15-month high. Investors were also taking stock of a slew of Chinese economic data released this week, including strong-than-expected loan growth in September, and third-quarter economic growth of 6.7 percent, which was in line with expectations.