Roundup: HK shares close 0.67 pct higher tracking gains on Mainland markets

Roundup: HK shares close 0.67 pct higher tracking gains onMainland markets

HONG KONG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks went up 160.55points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 24,136.92 on Wednesday,tracking gains on Mainland markets.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 4.68 points, or 0.02 percenthigher at 23,981.05, then traded between 23,842.29 and 24,200.32during the day's session. Turnover totaled 77.65 billion HK dollars(about 9.99 billion U.S. dollars).

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index went up 128.93 points, or0.96 percent, to close at 13,566.46.

All of the four sub-indices gained ground. The Commerce andIndustry index was the biggest gainer, moving up 0.73 percent,followed by the Utilities, rising 0.71 percent. The Finance and theProperties ended up 0.61 percent and 0.60 percent respectively.

Analysts said the benchmark index was lack of clear directions,despite it gained ground in the day tracking gains on mainlandmarkets.

Banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting ofthe Hang Seng Index, moved up 0.18 percent to 83.85 HK dollars, andits local unit Hang Seng Bank fell 0.49 percent to 121.9 HK dollars.

Bank of East Asia, another Hong Kong's major bank, ended 0.304percent higher at 32.95 HK dollars. Local bourse operator Hong KongExchanges and Clearing gained 1.79 percent to 182.1 HK dollars.

Mainland-based lenders gained generally. ICBC, the world'slargest bank by market value, finished up 1.23 percent at 6.59 HKdollars. China Construction Bank rose 1.22 percent at 7.46 HKdollars, and Bank of China up 1.15 percent at 4.41 HK dollars.However, Bank of Communications fell 0.36 percent to 8.43 HKdollars.

Local Property stocks put in good shows following declinesTuesday on strengthened monitoring on banks' borrowing by Hong KongMonetary Authority.

Henderson Land was eye-catching performance, which gained 2.74percent to 56.25 HK dollars as its chairman Lee Shau-kee subscribedfor 10 billion shares at a premium in exercise of his warrants.

Cheung Kong Holding, a powerful HK-based developer controlled bybillionaire Li Ka-shing, moved up 0.55 percent to 128.6 HK dollars.Sun Hung Kai Properties added 0.16 percent to 125.8 HK dollars, andHang Lung Properties up 0.14 percent to 35.55 HK dollars.

As for oils shares, the country's largest oil and gas producerPetroChina gained 0.51 percent to 11.8 HK dollars after Tuesday'slosses at 4.86 percent. China's top refiner Sinopec rose 0.25percent, to close at 8.17 HK dollars. CNOOC, the HK-listed unit ofChina's National Offshore Oil Corporation, dropped 0.302 percent to19.8 HK dollars.

Among other blue chips, Hong Kong's flagship carrier CathayPacific was the best-performing blue chip in the day, which plunged3.397 percent to 24.35 HK dollars. Tencent, China's biggest Internetcompany, added 2.996 percent to 199.40 HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollarequals 7.773 HK dollars).