Futures traders drive early gains but benchmark ends only slightly ahead as HSBC results are awaited
Leading stocks edged higher as July futures contracts expired yesterday, with long traders at one stage nudging the Hang Seng Index towards 15,000 points, triggering profit taking.
The benchmark index rallied 97.85 points to 14,899.71 in the morning session but ran out of steam to finish at 14,813.32 - up only 11.46 points, or 0.08 per cent. Turnover rose to $23.55 billion from $18.95 billion on Wednesday.
'The long futures traders pushed the index to a high level for contracts clearing and that's why the index soared in the morning,' said Ben Kwong Man-bun of KGI Asia Securities.
'However, investors are tending to stay on the sidelines awaiting HSBC's half-year result and this dragged down the index.'
The July index futures contract gained 37 points to 14,852, representing a 38-point premium to the underlying index. Traders are looking for further upside with the August futures contracts ending 15 points higher at 14,835.