China stocks jump further after re-entering bull markets
Investors keep up the buying on improved sentiment in China's economic growth but HK shares decline on US interest rate concerns
Chinese stocks jumped further on Friday, led by a surge in securities firms, after the benchmark re-entered the bull market the day before, as market sentiment improved considerably with investors turning upbeat on China's economic growth and piling back into equities.
However, Hong Kong stocks pulled back, as concerns over an interest rate increase in December by the US Federal Reserve and increasing bad loans at Chinese banks dragged on sentiment.
The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.91 per cent to 3,590.032 points, marking a third consecutive day of gains. The index pushed into bull market territory on Thursday, surging over 20 per cent from its August 26 low. For the week, it is up 6.1 per cent.
The large-cap CSI 300 also gained 2.36 per cent on Friday to end at 3,793.374 points. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 2.82 per cent to finish at 2,152.43 points, also up for the third session, while notching up an advance of 6.8 per cent for the week. The Nasdaq-style ChiNext Index tacked on 3.77 per cent to 2,661.41 points.
Leading the markets higher were securities firms, which rose as several top brokers recorded a month-on-month surge in net profit for October.
"Brokerage houses were the clear winners of the week with investors betting that trading volumes will actually improve as the market becomes more confident," said Gerry Alfonso from Shanghai-based Shenwan Hongyuan Securities.