But most of the attention was focused on Li Ka-shing's property flagship, Cheung Kong (Holdings), and its associate, Hutchison Whampoa. Both companies reported bottom lines towards the lower end of expectations, but analysts said there were favourable developments beneath the headline numbers, such as the accelerating subscriber growth for Hutchison's 3G operations.

'The Hong Kong earnings so far have been a slight positive surprise and the forward indications by the managements - apart from the banks which are always cautious - have in general been pretty positive,' said Andrew Look, head of Hong Kong equity strategy at UBS.

The earnings allowed the Hang Seng Index to put in its best performance in two weeks with a 1.37 per cent gain.

Mr Li, chairman of Cheung Kong and Hutchison, said he was optimistic on the future of the local economy, as more mainland tourists visited Hong Kong to give the retail and service sectors a much-needed boost.

'The most beneficial thing has been the individual travel scheme. It's been good for retail and for the restaurant and hotel businesses. If we can expand the scheme and allow more mainland tourists to come, then the unemployment rate will fall even lower,' he said.

Ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate Hutchison saw its first-half earnings more than double to $12.48 billion, boosted by a $15.06 billion windfall from the sale of its interests in a mainland joint venture with Procter & Gamble.

Its 3G mobile operations trimmed losses by 15 per cent to $12.24 billion in the first half compared with the previous six months due to faster subscriber growth. The company said it added 2.5 million users globally since the beginning of this year, taking its total to 3.2 million.

Mr Li reiterated his confidence that the global 3G mobile operation would achieve its operational break-even target before the end of next year as subscriber growth accelerated.

Cheung Kong said net profit rose 93.7 per cent to $7.75 billion, with income from its core business property developments showing a 28.8 per cent improvement. The company sold more flats, but analysts said profit from property sales was below their forecasts due to lower-than-expected margins.

A rebound in property prices and the improving economic outlook also helped Hong Kong's second-largest lender, BOCHK, which reported an 85.2 per cent rise in interim profit to $5.58 billion.

But positive results aside, lingering uncertainties about oil prices, the strength of US growth, the effectiveness of the mainland's tightening measures and their impact on corporate earnings meant investors were unlikely to chase the stock market much higher in the short-term, analysts warned.