Hong Kong stocks hit near 3-week high as financials rebound

Guangdong Investment

12/08/2020 09:56

* Hang Seng adds 1.4%, H-shares up 0.6%
    * Short-covering in hard-pressed banks lift HK - analyst
    * China, U.S. to talk Tiktok, Wechat, yuan - Bloomberg

    HONG KONG, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares touched a
near three-week high on Wednesday, led by a rebound in
heavyweight financial stocks, and as a regional sell-off in
equities ran out of steam towards the end of the trading
session.
** The Hang Seng index  .HSI  closed up 1.4% at 25,244.02, near
its highest level since July 23 hit earlier in the session. The
Hang Seng China Enterprises index  .HSCE  rose 0.6%.
 
** Index-heavy financial sector  .HSNF  added almost 2% and the
property sector jumped 2.2%. Energy shares  .HSCIE  rose 1%
while the TECH index  .HSTECH  lost 1.7%.

** Banking shares have been rising globally as yields rebounded
on U.S. treasuries, and Hong Kong lenders have been lagging
peers in other markets due to U.S.-China tensions, said Edison
Pun, senior market analyst at Saxo Capital Markets.
    
** "People have been especially sceptical on this sector here...
(yields rebound) triggered short-covering," he added.
    
** Hong Kong's currency  HKD=D3  is pegged to the U.S. dollar
and its policy rate moves lock-step with the Federal Reserve.
        
** Global banks have been scrutinising their clients amid U.S.
sanction threats over the city's autonomy, a key sticking point
in Washington's tussle with Beijing.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2ER06S
        
** China will bring up Tiktok, Wechat and discuss the yuan
exchange rate during trade talks this week with the United
States, Bloomberg reported.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2FE0BQ
 
** MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index  .MIAPJ0000PUS  was weaker
by just 0.1%  MKTS/GLOB 
 
** About 1.76 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, more
than the previous session's 1.63 billion.    

 (Reporting by Noah Sin; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
 ((Noah.Sin@thomsonreuters.com; +852 5202 7991; Reuters
Messaging: noah.sin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: https://twitter.com/noah_sin))