Friday 26 / April / 2024
Shanghai: Hong Kong shares rose on Thursday, supported by gains in mainland markets as Beijing pledged to deepen structural reforms and curb risks to its financial system while maintaining steady economic growth in 2018.
The pledges came in a statement following China's annual Central Economic Work Conference.
At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 132.97 points or 0.45 per cent at 29,367.06. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.79 per cent to 11,596.94.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 1.1 per cent while the IT sector rose 0.78 per cent, the financial sector was 0.74 per cent higher and property sector dipped 0.31 per cent .
The top gainer on Hang Seng was Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd up 2.62 per cent, while the biggest loser was Wharf Real Estate Investment Co Ltd, down 1.80 per cent.
China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.4 per cent at 3,300.6818 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index gained 0.93 per cent.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.18 per cent while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.11 per cent .
The yuan was quoted at 6.583 per U.S. dollar at 08:07 GMT, 0.08 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.5775.
So far this year, the Hang Seng index is up 32.88 per cent, while China's H-share index is up 22.5 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 0.19 per cent this month.
The top gainers among H-shares were Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd up 3.58 per cent, followed by China Communications Construction Co Ltd gaining 2.93 per cent and China Vanke Co Ltd up by 2.69 per cent.
The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were CRRC Corp Ltd which was down 1.50 per cent, Air China Ltd which fell 1.4 per cent and PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd down by 0.7 per cent.
About 1.49 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 76.3 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.95 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.35 billion.
At the close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 30.64 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.33 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 3 per cent.
So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has risen by 1.30 per cent to HK$19.14 trillion.
The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was lower by 0.46 per cent on the day at 5,026.7 points.
