Update | Hong Kong stocks edge higher as investors await upbeat corporate earnings
Ping An Insurance and Geely Auto rise at least 1.7pc before full-year earnings results this week. Hang Seng Index closes up 0.1pc at 31,513.76
Hong Kong stocks inched ahead on Monday as traders weighed the likely earnings prospects of market heavyweights and the impact of an almost-certain interest rate rise by the Federal Reserve this week.
The Hang Seng Index ended less than 0.1 per cent up, or 11.79 points, at 31,513.76. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, or the H-share gauge, slipped 0.1 per cent.
The Hong Kong dollar also fell close to a level that will trigger intervention by the city’s monetary authority, even as an interbank lending rate rose to a five-week high.
The mainland’s Shanghai Composite Index rose for the first time in five days after the Chinese central bank’s vice-governor was endorsed as its new head at the annual legislative meeting – a move viewed by the market as signalling policy continuity.
Fifteen companies on the Hang Seng gauge, including Ping An Insurance Group and Geely Automobile Holdings, are due to release their 2017 annual results this week.
Ping An is looking at a possible 22 per cent profit increase and Geely’s full-year earnings are expected to have surged 95 per cent, according to the estimates polled by Bloomberg.