Hong Kong's leading stocks finished slightly higher yesterday but gave up more than half of their early gains as investors continued to worry about the outlook for the property market and foreign investors had their eyes firmly focused on Japan.
Tokyo's Nikkei-225 Index jumped 2.17 per cent in its biggest one-day rally in two months on expectations the Bank of Japan's tankan business survey, due out tomorrow, will signal sustained economic growth.
'Japanese fundamentals are turning around and institutional investors are piling into the market, while here in Hong Kong the situation is entirely different with doubts about the property market and rising interest rates hurting the economy,' said Steven Leung Wai-yuen, a director at UOB Kay Hian Hong Kong.
The US Federal Reserve's interest-rate setting meeting later this session and the World Trade Organisation summit were also keeping some investors on the sidelines, traders said.
The Hang Seng Index finished up 73.89 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 14,984.4, having hit a high of 15,079.96 early in the session.
The decline meant the index failed to sustain the breakthrough its 14-day moving average at about 15,044 points and one salesman said this trend line was likely to provide resistance in the short term.
Turnover fell to $16.87 billion from $17.84 billion on Friday.
