Consolidation looms after stretch of buying

The Hang Seng Index finished higher yesterday after Tuesday's sluggish performance, but brokers saw signs of profit-taking at a high level which indicated consolidation would follow.

The blue-chip index rose 34.96 points, or 0.24 per cent, to end the day at 14,602.7, after gaining as much as 106.09 points in the morning session. Turnover increased slightly to $23.94 billion from $21.56 billion on Tuesday.

'The benchmark index lacked support after climbing a hundred points as investors started profit-taking,' said Kenny Tang Sing-hing, an associate director at Tung Tai Securities.

Global banking giant HSBC was the driver of the index's upside, adding 0.4 per cent to $125.50, which accounted for 17.9 points of yesterday's gain. Mr Tang believed rival Citigroup's lower than expected second-quarter results were likely to limit HSBC's gain.

Another index heavyweight China Mobile fell 0.82 per cent to $30.15, after gaining 7.29 per cent over the past week. China's largest mobile operator yesterday said that it had signed up 3.28 million users last month, compared with 3.4 million in May.

Smaller rival China Unicom closed flat at $6.60 after sliding 2.27 per cent. The company on Tuesday reported that it added only 1.3 million new customers last month, which was the lowest in three years.