Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 1.94 percent Wednesday, led by heavyweight blue-chip China Mobile following its strong first-half earnings report.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index recouped 408.06 points, or 1.94 percent, to close at its intraday high of 21,464.72 on Wednesday. Turnover rose to 60.99 billion HK dollars (7.82 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 47.96 billion HK dollars (6.15 billion U.S. dollars).
Hong Kong market outperformed the benchmark Shanghai index's 0.3 percent decline Wednesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average's0.23 percent rise overnight.
Three of the four major sub-indices advanced. The commerce and industry index gained most at 2.34 percent, followed by the property at 2.19 percent, the finance at 1.78 percent. The utility sub-index edged down 0.25 percent.
Heavyweight China Mobile, the largest mobile phone operator in the country and the market's largest stock measured by capitalization, rose 3.5 percent to 96.55 HK dollars after reporting a 45 percent increase in first-half net profit on strong subscriber growth and lower taxes. Analysts said the telecom operator's leading market share will likely attract continued interest from investors.
With International oil futures rallying, China's largest offshore oil producer CNOOC rose 3.7 percent to 11.62 HK dollars ahead of results announcement. PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, rose 3.4 percent to 10.30 HK dollars despite expectations it would report a drop in first-half earnings. After the market closed, PetroChina said its first-half net profit fell to 53.62 billion yuan from 81.83 billion yuan a year earlier.
On bank stocks side, HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, rose 0.84 percent to 120.80 HK dollars on the rumors that the bank recaptured the market leadership on its mortgage interest rate of as low as the prime rate minus 2.9 points.
On shipping and related stocks front, COSCO Holdings was up 8. 23 percent at 15.78 HK dollars on doubled interim profit.
Source:Xinhua
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