bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE primary focus of buying yesterday was blue-chip stocks.

  With the exception of Shanghai Petrochemical and Sino Land, the top 10 stocks by turnover were Hang Seng Index constituents.

  The index rose 318.82 points - 3.54 per cent - to 9,329.09 on heavy turnover of $9.77 billion.

  Foreign participation from Japan, Europe and the United States continued the market's record-breaking run.

  Having been caught on the wrong side of a rally in previous weeks, local investors seemed to hold on to their stocks.

  Selling into strength had been prevalent in the previous run, but investors were reluctant to do this yesterday for fear of not being able to get back in.

  Of the total market turnover, the top 10 blue chips by turnover made up 30.7 per cent of market activity.

  The figure is higher than during the period of consolidation, when the top 10 blue chips accounted for less than a quarter of activity.

  But it is lower than the concentration of activity experienced in the September 29 rally, when the top 10 blue chips, with associated warrant trading, took more than 40 per cent of market activity during the period of record-breaking closes.

  Brokers remain optimistic about the market's prospects next week.

  Barclays de Zoete Wedd (Asia) director K.S. Ng said: ''With this kind of momentum behind it the index should take on some new highs.''   A measure of the degree of bullishness was the strong buying of out-of-the-money options, particularly by Morgan Stanley, which took on November 9,400 and December 9,600 out-of-the-money options.

  Those buying options at these levels must be bulls, as the price is linked to index futures and not the cash market. This means they take in the premium of the futures over the cash as their price marker, which at one point in the day was about 200 points.

  November index futures stopped at 9,525, the high of the day, on 13,843 contracts traded. There were 750 December futures traded, and the price stopped at 5,515.

  The confirmed open interest on November futures by Thursday's close was 21,272, up 2,923. There were 7,087 lots remaining in the expired October contract.

  Total market open interest was at its highest level since the 1987 crash at 30,574, representing a value of more than $15 billion or about 0.7 per cent of cash market capitalisation.

  All Hang Seng Index sectors moved neck and neck.

  ''It was a case of having to push the whole basket of stocks up four or five spreads before anyone could deal in anything like size,'' said a broker.

  By Hang Seng sub-index, utilities rose 3.68 per cent to 11,594.53.

  Hongkong Telecom, the second most heavily traded stock of the day, was up 50 cents to $16.70 on a turnover of $353.68 million. This represented a gain of 32 points on the main index.

  Finance was in second place with a rise of 3.61 per cent to 7,858.80.

   HSBC Holdings, which led trading, rose to $89.50, up $3, on a turnover of $423.68 million. The rise in share price was worth 43 points on the index.

  Commerce and industry rose 3.46 per cent to 7,121.33. Wharf was a big beneficiary of trading, rising $1.40 to $28.50 on a turnover of $266.45 million, the fourth highest turnover of the day.

  Property developers were up 3.45 per cent to 15,500.69. Cheung Kong, the third most heavily traded stock of the day, was up $1.25 to $36.50 on a turnover of $296.2 million.

  Shanghai Petrochemical rose 10 cents to $2.55 on the eighth largest turnover of the day of $217 million.

  The best performing stock of the day was Styland, up nine cents to 82 cents, a rise of 12 per cent.

  Orient Telecom continued its ballistic rise, gaining 45 cents to $5.95.

  Red chips rose. Shougang International was up 25 cents to $5.10 and Guangdong Investment rose 32.5 cents to $4.30.



Hong Kong stocks rebound from US$196 billion rout on China PMI reports, NPC meeting

Blue chips in spotlight