Hong Kong market rises as tech stocks rally, after White House signals Biden-Xi talks

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.9 per cent on Friday, but ended the week with a third consecutive weekly loss

JD.com advances after transactions on its platform rise by more than 10 times during first three minutes of 618 promotion; Kweichow Moutai lost US$12.9 billion in market cap

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The White House says direct talks between US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, could be held as early as next month. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:41am, 18 Jun 2021Updated: 5:08pm, 18 Jun 2021

Hong Kong stocks rose on Friday for the second day this week buoyed by technology shares tracking rallies on Wall Street, after the White House signalled direct talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were on the cards.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.9 per cent to 28,801.27 on Friday, but ended the week 0.1 per cent lower. This week was its third consecutive week of losses.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index was almost flat at 3,525.10, leading to a 1.8 per cent decline for the whole week. The benchmark also recorded a third straight weekly decline.

The White House has said direct talks between Biden and Xi could be held as early as next month, after the US president’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month. The meeting could continue to boost investor sentiment, which has been dented by a recent ratcheting up of pressure on China by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and G7 countries.

The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 1.8 per cent on Friday, with technology stocks in Hong Kong rebounding from their lowest level in almost a month. They were down earlier because of regulatory risks and US Federal Reserve policy uncertainties.

JD.com advanced 3.8 per cent after transactions on its platform rose by more than 10 times year on year during the first three minutes of its 618 promotion on Friday. The promotion started at midnight. Meituan added 3.7 per cent. Alibaba Group Holding, which owns this newspaper, gained 1.2 per cent.