Hong Kong stocks rebounded on Wednesday, underpinned by services and financial firms. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 428.22 points or 1.49 percent at 29,222.10. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 1.83 percent to 11,519.79. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 1.6 percent while the IT sector rose 0.53 percent, the financial sector was 2.1 percent higher and property sector rose 0.4 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd up 5.46 percent, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd which was down 2.72 percent.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.51 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.47 percent. The yuan was quoted at 6.6203 per US dollar at 08:09 GMT, 0.02 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.6215.
So far this year, the Hang Seng index is up 30.88 percent, while China's H-share index is up 20.4 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has declined 1.31 percent this month. The top gainers among H-shares were Air China Ltd up 9.43 percent, followed by China Construction Bank Corp gaining 4.52 percent and PetroChina Co Ltd up by 4.03 percent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were China Pacific Insurance Group Co Ltd which was down 2.21 percent, New China Life Insurance Co Ltd which fell 1.2 percent and Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd down by 0.6 percent. About 2.65 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 133.6 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.99 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.20 billion.
At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 29.67 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.13 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 3 percent.