Rising consumer confidence in the United States helped push Hong Kong stocks slightly higher yesterday, although many investors are still holding off on their buying before the release of key interim earnings results.
Hong Kong lagged other leading markets in the region but dealers said this was a direct effect of the domestic market out-performing in the past week.
'We haven't fallen in recent days when other markets have been under pressure so [yesterday] there was no bargain hunting and no short-covering. We were just stuck in the same boring range,' a brokerage sales director said.
The Hang Seng Index finished 18.94 points or 0.15 per cent higher at 12,320.27. It was the fifth session in a row that the index closed between 12,300 and 12,353.
And with the July Hang Seng Index futures due to expire today, the market was likely to be capped at 12,400 for yet another session, Phillip Securities director Louis Wong Wai-kit said.
'There are still funds leaving Hong Kong and that doesn't look good for the stock market,' he said, noting investors were hesitant to return before clearer direction emerged. At the very least, they wanted to see Bank of East Asia's first-half results and US second-quarter gross domestic product data tomorrow before making any decisions, Mr Wong argued.
The H-share index was almost flat, rising 0.69 point to 4,310.34 points.
