HK shares end higher; tech firms rally on hopes of China policy boost

Hang Lung Properties

09/08/2018 09:47

* Hang Seng index ends up 0.9 pct
China Enterprises index HSCE rises 1.1 percent 
HSI financial sector sub-index is 1.1 percent higher
    * IT sub-index gains 2.6 pct

    Aug 9 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index  .HSI 
ended higher on Thursday, with investors buying high-tech shares
amid talks of possible government support for Chinese technology
companies.
  
** The Hang Seng index was up 248.16 points or 0.88 percent at
28,607.30 points. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index  .HSCE 
rose 1.09 percent to 11,019.93.
 
** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares
 .HSCIE  dipped 0.4 percent, the property sector was flat, and
the financial sector  .HSNF  was 1.07 percent higher.
    
** The IT sector  .HSCIIT  rose 2.61 percent as China revamped a
national leadership group charged with planning and studying its
key technological development strategies, signalling the
possibility of policy shifts that could benefit China's tech
sector.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1V01YF

** MTR Corp Ltd  0066.HK  touched five-month lows after it
announced a senior management reshuffle following "inaccuracies"
concerning the methodology of a construction project. The
company's shares ended 1.8 percent lower.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1UZ1L8
         
** The top gainer on Hang Seng was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd
 2319.HK  up 4.58 percent, while the biggest loser was Hang Lung
Properties Ltd  0101.HK  which was down 2.20 percent.
 
** China's main Shanghai Composite index  .SSEC  closed up 1.85
percent at 2,744.0696 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index
 .CSI300  ended up 2.52 percent.
 
 ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
 .MIAPJ0000PUS  was firmer by 0.42 percent while Japan's Nikkei
index  .N225  closed down 0.2 percent .
 
 ** The yuan  CNY=CFXS  was quoted at 6.8271 per U.S. dollar at
08:21 GMT, 0.07 percent firmer than the previous close of
6.8318. 
 
** As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was
down 5.21 percent this year, while China's H-share index was
down 6.9 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has
declined 0.78 percent this month. 
 
** The top gainers among H-shares were Air China Ltd  0753.HK 
up 6.18 percent, followed by China Vanke Co Ltd  2202.HK 
gaining 5.82 percent and ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance Co Ltd
 6060.HK  up by 4.86 percent.
 
** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were CNOOC
Ltd  0883.HK , which was down 0.92 percent, Huaneng Power
International Inc  0902.HK , which ended 0.9 percent lower and
China Telecom Corp Ltd  0728.HK  which slipped down 0.8 percent.
 
** About 1.49 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded,
roughly 83 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.80
billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading
session was 1.66 billion.
 
** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a
premium of 16.67 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
 
** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 10.88
as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was
3.3 percent.
 
** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng
index has risen by 2.53 percent to HK$18.39 trillion.
 
** The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index  .HSISI ,
which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or
leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang
Seng Index, was lower by 0.87 percent on the day at 4,942.17
points.

 (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith, Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Andrew.Galbraith@tr.com; +86 21 6104 1779; Reuters Messaging:
andrew.galbraith.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net ; Twitter: https://twitter.com/apgalbraith))