Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index surged over 1,300 points Wednesday, led by China Mobile and Sinopec, following an overnight surge on Wall Street as concerns about the global credit crisis eased.

 

The local market was boosted by the Dow Jones Industrial Average's gain of 2.5 percent Tuesday.

 

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 1,362.66 points, or 4.9 percent, to close at 29,166.01, after fluctuating between 28,622.97 and 29,175.26, with the total turnover of 149.12 billion HK dollars (US$19.17 billion), down from 154.72 billion HK dollars (US$19.91 billion) Tuesday.

 

All the four major categories gained ground. The Commerce and Industry went up most at 6.19 percent, followed by the Finance at 4.52 percent, the Properties at 3.12 percent at the Utilities at 1.69 percent.

 

China Mobile rose 9.2 percent to 140.80 HK dollars and China Unicom ended 6.2 percent higher at 15.44 HK dollars on comments from company executives that suggested the iPhone might come to China earlier than expected. Netcom went up 5.2 percent and China Telecom up 8.1 percent.

 

Sinopec jumped 10.2 percent to 11.62 HK dollars and PetroChina climbed 7.1 percent to 15.74 HK dollars.

 

Hong Kong Exchanges rose 5.5 percent to 239.00 HK dollars after the city's bourse operator said its net profit for the third quarter this year nearly tripled, tracking a similar rate of increase in market turnover.

 

HSBC rose 1.2 percent to 139.00 HK dollars.

 

The three insurers were speculated higher amid the hopes over interest rate hikes on the mainland. China Life, Ping An and PICC P&C rose 6.51 percent to 7.37 percent.

 

ICBC, Bank of China, CCB, Bankcomm, CITIC Bank and CM Bank mounted 2.68 percent to 7.11 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)