Local market outperforms most other bourses in the region as H-share index climbs 1.1pc
Hong Kong blue chips finished marginally higher yesterday after a day of consolidation, although traders noted good support for the Hang Seng Index at current levels amid a favourable economic outlook.
This helped the Hong Kong market weather a sharp decline overnight on Wall Street where higher oil prices and disappointing earnings reports sent all 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower, while the Nasdaq Composite Index saw its biggest drop in about six weeks. The local market also outperformed all other bourses in the region, except for those in China and the Philippines.
Higher commodity prices and a rebound in China's A-share markets after two days of corrections underpinned China-related shares, pushing the H-share index 1.14 per cent, or 52.01 points, higher to 4,625.69.
Premier Wen Jiabao's hints that the pressure to raise interest rates would ease as stabilising food prices were likely to lead to lower inflation in the coming months also contributed to the more positive sentiment, traders said.
The Hang Seng Index added 0.06 per cent, or 8.2 points, to finish at 13,280.43, after bouncing from an early intraday low of 13,179.13. The modest gains were mainly due to heavyweights HSBC and CNOOC, however, as only six out of the 33 index stocks finished higher while another five were unchanged.
