The Hang Seng Index rose 1.1 per cent to 17,965.08 as of 11.25am, while the Tech Index gained 0.9 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 per cent.
Alibaba Group advanced 3.4 per cent to HK$76.95 and Tencent climbed 0.8 per cent to HK$329.20. Search engine operator Baidu jumped 4.1 per cent to HK$108.80, with analysts forecasting its earnings report today may show a 6.6 per cent increase for the last quarter. Trip.com Group, China’s biggest online travel agency, added 0.1 per cent to HK$280.80 after third-quarter revenue doubled from a year earlier.
Longfor led gains among home builders with a 7.5 per cent surge to HK$14 while China Overseas Land and Investment rallied 3.6 per cent to HK$15.14.
The yuan appreciated 0.4 per cent to 7.1388 against the US dollar, its sixth straight daily gain. The central bank set the daily reference at 7.1406, compared with expectations of 7.1682 among traders in a Bloomberg survey. The yuan had slumped last month to a 16-year low.
“A strengthening yuan coupled with falling US Treasury yields will help to arrest the outflow of foreign capital, a major overhang on stocks this year,” said An Qingliang, an analyst at Guorong Securities. “Given the recent economic data, China’s growth has most probably troughed, though the recovery is still bumpy amid the weakness in the property market.”
Overseas investors have bought 3.82 billion yuan (US$535 million) of Chinese stocks via the exchange link with Hong Kong so far today, extending net purchases of 1.37 billion yuan for the previous day, according to the exchange’s data.
Local stocks have stabilised as China’s economic recovery has gained traction and forecasters see an imminent end to the Federal Reserve’s policy tightening drive after US inflation cooled last month. A meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden last week also helped ease geopolitical tensions.
Hong Kong’s GEM board needs more radical reform to end IPO drought
Hong Kong’s GEM board needs more radical reform to end IPO drought
In Shanghai, liquor giant Kweichow Moutai surged 1.6 per cent to 1,790.83 yuan after proposing a special dividend payment totalling 24 billion yuan.
Major Asian markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 per cent, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3 per cent.