Hong Kong stocks Tuesday opened84 points higher and their gains continued to expand before closing at the day-high of 21,701.14.

The benchmark index rose 228.29 points, or 1.06 percent, to end Tuesday's session. Turnover shrank to 49.95 billion HK dollars (6.45 billion U.S. dollars) from Monday's 57.50 billion HK dollars (7. 43 billion U.S. dollars).

China Enterprises Index went up 93.21 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 12,511.55 points.

The properties sub-index became the biggest gainers among the four major stock categories, ending 1.47 percent higher, followed by the commerce and industry, 1.24 percent up. The finance edged up 0.86 percent and utilities rose 1.16 percent.

Blue-chips closed up in general. Banking giant HSBC Holdings ended 0.88 percent up to close at 91.75 HK dollars. Heavyweight China Mobile, by far the largest mobile carrier in the mainland, surged 2.42 percent to 80.3 HK dollars. HKEx, the sole exchange operator in Hong Kong, rose 1.29 percent, to 149.5 HK dollars.

Local properties also gained. Cheung Kong, the flagship of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, went up 1.71 percent to 100.8 HK dollars. SHK Properties surge 2.12 percent to 115.5 HK dollars. Henderson Land rose 2.81 percent to 51.3 HK dollars.

Mainland-based commercial lenders mostly closed up. Bank of China edged up 0.93 percent to at 4.33 HK dollars. ICBC rose 1.49 percent to 6.11 HK dollars. CCB moved down 0.46 percent to 6.46 HK dollars.

Chinese insurance shares generally finished higher. China Life moved up 1.98 percent to 36.15 HK dollars. Ping An edged up 0.23 percent to 65.1 HK dollars. PICC P&C gain 1.05 percent to 5.77 HK dollars.

As for energy shares, PetroChina rose 1.4 percent to 9.38 HK dollars, off-shore oil producer CNOOC gained 0.93 percent to 10.84HK dollars, while Sinopec Corp moved up 0.59 percent to 6.83 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)

Source: Xinhua