HEAVY buying from overseas institutional investors yesterday pushed the Hang Seng Index to its sixth record in just over a month, with a 118.83 point gain to 7,124.12.
HSBC Holdings padded the index by 21.6 points by jumping $1.50 to $72, while heavy interest from the US helped Hongkong Telecom add another 19.5 points with a 30 cents rise to $11.10. Turnover was $5.39 billion.
Brokers said investors were enthused by weekend comments from Hongkong and Macau Affairs Office director Lu Ping that the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group would meet and that both sides were discussing an agenda.
Crosby Securities institutional sales director Julian Wood said the market also responded to strong demand for Hongkong stocks in London on Friday.
Although he expected the positive momentum to continue before this weekend's Sino-British political talks in Beijing, Mr Wood said the market was a bit overdone and the long-term outlook was worrying.
He was particularly concerned about the direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the next couple of months and US interest rates.