Hong Kong stocks reversed earlier losses to end higher on Wednesday, posting its best month in nearly three years, helped by gains for financial and services firms. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 279.98 points or 0.86 percent at 32,887.27. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 1.29 percent to 13,561.65. For the month, HSI was up 9.9 percent, marking the fourth straight month of gains and its best since April 2015.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.9 percent while the IT sector rose 0.48 percent, the financial sector was 1.32 percent higher and property sector rose 0.09 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was WH Group Ltd up 4.41 percent, while the biggest loser was China Resources Power Holdings Co Ltd which was down 1.77 percent.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 8.98 percent this year, while China's H-share index was up 14.3 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 8.98 percent this month. The top gainers among H-shares were New China Life Insurance Co Ltd up 3.04 percent, followed by China Life Insurance Co Ltd gaining 2.92 percent and Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd gaining 2.83 percent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Huaneng Power International Inc which was down 1.93 percent, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd which fell 1.7 percent and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp down by 1.5 percent. About 3.42 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 141.2 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.42 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 3.28 billion.