Chinese telecommunications firms rose on bargain hunting and oil producer CNOOC gained on higher oil prices, sending Hong Kong's benchmark index up Monday.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 59.66 points, or 0.27 percent, to 22,102.01 after trading between 21,997.69 and 22,237. 92 during the session.
Turnover dropped to 53.06 billion HK dollars (6.81 billion U.S. dollars) from Friday's 65.03 billion HK dollars (8.34 billion U.S. dollars).
The Hang Seng Index has fallen 21 percent in the past six months. Hong Kong's stock market will be closed Tuesday for a holiday.
Analysts said valuations for local stocks are attractive given the recent decline, and they expect shares to recover on bargain hunting before the Beijing Olympics in August.
Property developers fell after BOCHK and ICBC (Asia) raised mortgage rates for new homebuyers by 25 basis points last week, joining three other local banks.
Sun Hung Kai Properties dropped 1.5 percent to 105.80 HK dollars, Cheung Kong fell 2.1 percent to 105.10 HK dollars, Henderson Land shed 1.2 percent to 48.60 HK dollars and estate agent Midland fell 1.8 percent to 4.84 HK dollars.
Chinese telecom stocks gained on bargain hunting. China Unicom rose 3.7 percent to 14.48 HK dollars after falling 2.4 percent Friday. Investors expect the mobile operator to benefit from the restructuring of China's telecom sector.
China Netcom, which will be taken over by Unicom through a share swap, rose 1.9 percent to 21.25 HK dollars. China Mobile ended 0.4 percent higher at 104.80 HK dollars after it dropped 1.7 percent Friday.
CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil and gas producer by output, rose 2.4 percent to 13.42 HK dollars. Oil refiner PetroChina gained 0.6 percent to 10.1 HK dollars, but Sinopec fell 0.7 percent to 7.30 HK dollars.
Heavyweight HSBC fell 0.8 percent to 120.90 HK dollars after its U.S. unit's credit rating was downgraded by Moody's. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)
Source: Xinhua
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