Hong Kong stocks pared its early gains Tuesday as cautious investors held their strength ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting later this week to decide whether to slash the interest rate further.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rebounded 586.49 points, or 2.44 percent, to open at 24,640.1 following Wall Street's overnight rally and shortly jumped to intra-day peak 24,736.8 during the morning session.
But market sentiment remained uneasy in the afternoon session towards the uncertainty of a Fed rate cut, trimming the index's early gains to the day's lowest 24,229.14 before gaining 238.19 points, or 0.99 percent, to close 24,291.8.
Turnover dropped to 92.63 billion HK dollars (11.87 billion U.S. dollars) from Monday's 107.79 billion HK dollars (13.82 billion U. S. dollars).
Among 43 components of the Hang Seng Index, gainers outnumbered losers 32 to 11.
SHK Properties, one of Hong Kong's largest housing developers, was the market's major driving force by advancing 3.9 percent to 159.7 HK dollars, lifting the index by 37.42 points alone.
Market heavyweight HSBC, or the largest bank in Hong Kong, inched up 0.94 percent to 117.6 HK dollars, propelling up the index by 34.74 points.
China Mobile, the largest stock measured by capitalization and the country's largest mobile phone operator, added 0.68 percent to 117.9 HK dollars, elevating the index by 21.26 points.
Most of Hong Kong's real estate companies rose on hope of a simultaneous rate cut following the Federal Reserve's decision. Cheung Kong, one of Hong Kong's largest house developers controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, rose 2.08 percent to 127.7 HK dollars. Henderson Land rebounded 1.16 percent to 69.5 HK dollars. Hutchison recovered 1.66 percent to 76.8 HK dollars. Sino Land went up 0.4 percent to 25.2 HK dollars. Hang Lung Property edged up 0.33 percent to 30.05 HK dollars.
New World Development was the only housing company that underperformed the entire market, down 0.42 percent to 23.65 HK dollars.
China Enterprise Index or H-shares, which track 43 companies registered on the Chinese mainland, recovered 59.69 points, or 0. 45 percent, to 13,379.18 as winter storms has hit much of central, eastern and southern China, deepening worries that inflation might be worsening in the country.
China's energy companies were higher as the winter storms hampered the transportation of coal to power plants in central and south China. China Shenhua, the country's largest coal producer, gained 1.67 percent to 42.55 HK dollars. China Coal advanced 1.43 percent to 21.25 HK dollars. Yanzhou Coal rose 1.72 percent to 14.2 HK dollars.
Most of China's oil companies rose slightly. PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, inched up 0.36 percent to 11.24 HK dollars. Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, added 0.11 percent to 8.83 HK dollars. CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil company, however, dipped 0.18 percent to 11.06 HK dollars.
All of China's insurance companies fell as investors worried that the winter storms might trigger waves of compensations. Ping An, the country's largest property insurance company, fell 3.31 percent to 61.4 HK dollars. China Life, the country's largest life insurer, dipped 0.32 percent to 31.3 HK dollars. PICC P&C lost 3.73 percent to 8.27 HK dollars.
Banking sectors were mixed. ICBC, China's largest lender, weakened 0.61 percent to 4.89 HK dollars. Bank of China, the country's second largest bank, slid 0.3 percent to 3.33 HK dollars. CITIC Bank lost 1.48 percent to 4.66 HK dollars. CCB, China's third largest bank, rose 1.2 percent to 5.9 HK dollars. Bank of Communications increased 1.39 percent to 9.5 HK dollars. China Merchants Bank went up 0.35 percent to 28.8 HK dollars.
Ship companies rose as the country's rail and road transport was paralyzed by the winter storms in central, eastern and southern China. China Cosco, the country's largest shipping conglomerate, jumped 3.75 percent to 16.6 HK dollars. China Ship Development rose 1.88 percent to 19.5 HK dollars. SinoTrans soared 4.88 percent to 2.58 HK dollars. CSCL increased 2.41 percent to 2.97 HK dollars.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)
