Hong Kong stocks rise as resource firms, coal miners rally

Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings)

24/01/2017 08:10

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday, led by 
a solid resources sector as a weaker U.S currency stemming from 
President Donald Trump's protectionist stance reduces costs to 
firms for raw materials imports.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1FD18X  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1FE03J 
    An index tracking resources stocks  .HSCIM  advanced 4.1 
percent.  
    Mainland miners also put up a solid performance after 
futures contracts of coke  DCJcv1  rallied around 3.7 percent at 
the close.   
    Shares of Shenhua Energy Co Ltd  1088.HK  and Yanzhou Coal 
Mining Company Limited  1171.HK  climbed about 2.5 percent and 
5.4 percent respectively.  
    The benchmark Hang Seng index  .HSI  added 0.2 percent, to 
22,949.86 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index 
 .HSCE  gained 0.3 percent, to 9,759.26 points. 
    The dollar  .DXY  was on the defensive after hitting a 
seven-week low against a basket of major currencies on Monday. 
    Heavily import-dependent paper maker Nine Dragons Paper 
Holdings Ltd  2689.HK  jumped more than 10 percent .  
    Shares were also bolstered by its earnings upgrade with the 
company forecasting interim profit to rise over 45 percent. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN1FD01L     
    Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities Ltd, said 
that Trump's protectionist stance and consequent lowering of the 
dollar are lending some support to resource stocks, but he 
remained cautious about the hurdles on capital inflows to Hong 
Kong from an expected uptick in U.S. interest rates this year. 
 
 (Reporting by Jackie Cai and John Ruwitch; Editing by Richard 
Borsuk) 
 ((Jackie.Cai@thomsonreuters.com; +86 021 6104 1775)) 
 
Keywords: CHINA STOCKS/HONGKONG CLOSE