Strength on blue-chips Wednesday sent Hong Kong stocks higher, to finish 1.61 percent up at 22,627.21 points, the highest closing within 15 months.

Heavyweight HSBC Holdings alone contributed 53 percent to local stocks. The benchmark Hang Seng index opened 1.19 percent up at 22,534.14 and gains expanded in the afternoon to end the session by gaining 359.05 points.

Turnover moved up to 72.26 billion HK dollars (US$9.33 billion) from Tuesday's 70.52 billion HK dollars (US$9.11 billion).

China Enterprises Index went up 93.24 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 13,460.43 points.

For the four major stock categories, the property sub-index was the only loser, sliding 0.54 percent. The finance sub-index gained 2.41 percent, the utilities edged up 0.32 percent, and the commerce and industry was 1.18 percent up.

Blue-chips closed mixed. Catapulted by its better-than-expected quarterly results, HSBC Holdings ended 5.98 percent up at 94 HK dollars.

Heavyweight China Mobile, by far the largest mobile carrier in China's mainland, went up 2.86 percent to 75.45 HK dollars. HKEx, the sole exchange operator in Hong Kong, edged down 0.28 percent to 141.4 HK dollars.

Local properties ended lower. Cheung Kong, the flagship of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, fell 0.41 percent to 96.6 HK dollars. Henderson Land finished flat at 56.5 HK dollars. SHK Properties lost 1.81 percent to 113.7 HK dollars.

Mainland-based commercial lenders went up. Bank of China, rose 0.42 percent at 4.79 HK dollars. ICBC moved up 0.59 percent to 6. 78 HK dollars. CCB gained 0.99 percent to 7.11 HK dollars.

Chinese insurance companies ended mixed. China Life moved up 1.3 percent to 38.95 HK dollars. Ping An fell 0.41 percent to 72.35 HK dollars.

As for energy shares, Petro China fell 0.2 percent to 10.1 HK dollars, off-shore oil producer CNOOC rose 1.6 percent to 12.66 HK dollars, while Sinopec Corp surged 2.23 percent to 6.87 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)