WILL Mickey Mouse rescue Hong Kong from economic malaise? That seemed to be the hope on Friday, as punters raced to snap up counters that could benefit should the Disney Corporation decide to build one of its fantasy-land parks on Lantau Island.
Disneyland rumours have persisted for weeks - the story going around was that the entertainment giant is deciding between Hong Kong or the mainland for an Asian theme park.
On Friday, the mass market newspaper Apple Daily wrote that the Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen would announce a Disney deal this week, with the park to be built on Lantau.
Accompanied by a picture-map of the island with a bright red circle around the alleged site - and cartoon pictures of a Sinofied Mickey Mouse - who could resist a market punt after reading the article? Leading Lantau island developer HKR International saw its share price jump 11.04 per cent to $4.775 while its partner for the Discovery Bay developments, Citic Pacific, rose 3.83 per cent to $13.55.
Of course, visitors to any Disney theme park would not be arriving in a big pumpkin or anything - thus alert punters also drove up the share prices of Kwoon Chung Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus by 6.03 per cent and 11.62 per cent.
Kwoon Chung has franchises for transport on Lantau Island.
HKR and Citic Pacific are 50-50 owners in the 2.24 million square foot Yi Pak Wan site adjacent to Discovery Bay. The development planned for that area is much larger than the phase nine and 10 of Discovery Bay, for which the companies just came to an agreement with the Government on a land premium.
