Stocks News
- Roundup: HK stocks higher, breaking records
Date: 6-Sep-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
HONG KONG, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks soared to the new high of 24,283.15 during morning session Wednesday, but pared its gains on profit taking before closing at 24,069.17 to break the previous closing record of 23,984.14, set last Friday.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index once dipped to as low as 23,839 in the afternoon, obviously in the negative ground. The decline was attributed to profit taking and futures-related selling after Nikkei ended down 1.6 percent.
The index then rebounded to finish the day 0.77 percent higher at 24,069.17.
Turnover totaled 89.12 billion HK dollars (11.46 billion U.S. dollars), lower than Tuesday's 92.18 billion HK dollars (11.84 U.S. dollars).
Brokers said HSI was now 20 percent above 250-day moving average, suggesting the market was extremely overbought. Profit taking in short term would not be surprising, they said, adding that the index was nevertheless most likely to stay above 23,000.
HSBC Holdings was up 0.2 HK dollars at 139.7 HK dollars, suggesting the market has been mostly calm to its Korea Exchange Bank stake buy. The strategically positive significance of the purchase, nevertheless, was widely acknowledged. It could improve the banking giant's profit growth profile in longer term, analysts said.
HSBC unit Hang Seng Bank added 1.7 HK dollars to close at 123.1 HK dollars.
The mainland's largest mobile carrier China Mobile gained 1.8 HK dollars, or 1.73 percent, at 105.6 HK dollars, providing strong support for the overall market.
The finance sector turned out the only loser among the four sub-indices, dropping 16.11 points, or 0.04 percent, to 36,597.99. Bank of China lost 0.26 percent to 3.92 HK dollars while BOC Hong Kong went down 0.02 HK dollars to 18.72 HK dollars.
ICBC edged down 0.01 HK dollars, or 0.2 percent, to close at 5.04 HK dollars.
China Life went down 0.15 HK dollars, or 0.4 percent, at 37.25 HK dollars, and Ping An lost 1.15 HK dollars, or 1.46 percent, to close at 78.6 HK dollars.
The utilities sector went up 387.97 points, or 1.08 percent, to 36,372.59. The properties sector gained 496.59 points to close at 28,703.26, while the commerce and industry sub-index moved up 162.09 points, or 1.2 percent, to 13,714.22.
COSCO Pacific was largely flat, up 0.15 HK dollars at 22.2 HK dollars.
A reshuffle in Hang Seng Index was expected after market close Friday, as the Bank of Communications joins the benchmark, pushing the number of blue chips to 40, while free-float market cap-weighted rule with 15 percent ceiling takes place.
Market estimates said there are not many chances to profit from the reshuffle, given huge market volume nowadays. (7.8 HK dollars=1 U.S. dollars)
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