An upbeat profit forecast by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and a rebound in major blue chips led Hong Kong shares to end higher Friday.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 181.04 points, or 0.9 percent, to 21,423.82 after trading between 21,344.85 and 21,534.05 during the session. It slid 860 points, or 3.9 percent, in the previous two days and dropped 3.1 percent over the week.

Turnover went down to a two-week low of 50.16 billion HK dollars (6.44 billion U.S. dollars) from Thursday's 75.81 billion HK dollars (9.73 billion U.S. dollars). It was the second-lowest level in 2008. The lowest turnover in 2008 was on June 17, when just 48.27 billion HK dollars(6.2 billion U.S. dollars) worth of shares changed hands.

Shrinking turnover indicates investors will continue to stay onthe sidelines next week, while high energy prices and a possible rise in interest rates bode ill for corporate earnings, traders said.

Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed above 145 U.S. dollars a barrel for the first time overnight as market participants shrugged off a stronger dollar. Light, sweet crude for August delivery settled up 1.72 U.S. dollars, or 1.2 percent, at 145.29 U.S. dollars a barrel on Nymex.

On the local stock market, ICBC ended 2 percent higher at 5.11 HK dollars, after the largest Chinese bank by assets said it expects a significant rise in its first-half earnings on rapid netinterest and net fee income growth.

China Construction Bank rose 1.4 percent to 5.92 HK dollars andBank of Communications gained 1.1 percent to 8.66 HK dollars.

China Mobile rose 2 percent to 103.80 HK dollars after falling 2.9 percent in the previous two days.

PetroChina ended 1.3 percent higher at 9.67 HK dollars following a 5.5 percent slide in the past two sessions. China Shansui Cement ended at 3.00 HK dollars on its trading debut, up 7.1 percent from its initial offering price 2.80 HK dollars, on expectations of strong demand for cement.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2008)