Hong Kong stocks up tracking Wall Street gains

Hong Kong stocks tracked gains on the Wall Street to open higher on Wednesday and closed the day at 21,241.59, rose 430.06 points, or 2.07 percent.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index moved between 21,343.75 and 21, 072.59 during the day's trading, with turnover moved up to 65.79 billion HK dollars (8.50 billion U.S. dollars) from Tuesday's 56. 30 billion HK dollars (7.27 billion U.S. dollars).

Analysts said they expect the index to rise to 23,000 in the near term, driven by commodities and energy stocks on expectations of a sustained economic recovery.

China Enterprises Index went up 333.31 points, or 2.78 percent, to close at 12,319.42 points.

All of the four major Hang Seng Index sub-indices gained. The properties sub-index added most at 2.35 percent, followed by the commerce and industry at 2.16 percent, the finance at 2.06 percent and the utilities sub-index at 0.89 percent.

Blue-chips ended higher in general. Banking giant HSBC Holdings gained 0.86 percent to close at 87.45 HK dollars. Heavyweight China Mobile, by far the largest mobile carrier in the mainland, rose 1.63 percent to 77.95 HK dollars. HKEx, the sole exchange operator in Hong Kong, rose 2.70 percent, to 140.5 HK dollars.

As for local properties, Cheung Kong, the flagship of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, rose 1.44 percent to 95.45 HK dollars. SHK Properties rose 1.9 percent to 112.8 HK dollars. Henderson Land climbed up 2.28 percent to 49.3 HK dollars.

The oil shares were also gainers. PetroChina gained 3.59 percent, Sinopec edged up 2.12 percent and offshore oil producer CNOOC gained 1.48 percent. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar).

Source: Xinhua