SELECTIVE buying of blue chips by institutionals investors pushed the Hang Seng Index up 40.07 points to 7,029.03 in thin trading.
Turnover was a modest $2.23 billion, significantly lower than last week's average of $2.73 billion, as the summer holiday season shifted up a gear.
It marked the first time in three weeks that the index closed above 7,000. The last time the index breached 7,000 was on July 9.
The consensus among brokers was one of uncertainty whether or not yesterday's upward trend would continue.
Evidence was seen in the August index futures which closed up 50 points to 7,022, a seven-point discount to the cash market.
Barclays de Zoete Wedd director K.S Ng said: ''We cannot predict whether the upward momentum will remain given the volume of trading was so thin.
