Update | Hong Kong shares pop at start, but rally stalls

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index rallied early but the advance slowed down on Friday with the morning trading ending slightly higher at 27,047.32, up by only 0.38 per cent or 102.93.

Total market turnover remained strong as it reached HK$121.53 billion in the morning session but that was much lower than the HK$187.78 billion hit on Thursday morning and below its whole day record at HK$293.90 billion.

The H-shares index which tracks the Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong edged up by 0.6 per cent at 13,830.97.

Brokers said investors started to take profits this morning after frenetic trading on Thursday and Wednesday, which saw record breaking funds flowing from mainland China to Hong Kong, taking the index to its highest level in seven years.

From an opening level of 27,373.68 on Friday morning, the Hang Seng Index fell to a low of 26,871.00 before bouncing back.    

The southbound turnover on the Shanghai-Hong Kong through train – which are the mainland Chinese investors buying Hong Kong stocks - reached HK$9.58 billion in the morning session compared with HK$22.53 billion on Thursday morning and a record HK$26.09 billion the whole day on Thursday. The daily 10.5 billion yuan southbound quota was used up shortly after the lunch break over the past two days.