Hong Kong stocks rise as sentiment recovers after recent rout

ONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks rose on Friday, capping a holiday-shortened trading week, as main indexes managed to recover much of the damage done during the recent rout. 

The Hang Seng index rose 1.0 percent, to 31,267.17, while the China Enterprises Index gained 1.7 percent, to 12,735.06.

 The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 2.2 percent, while the IT sector rose 1.32 percent, the financial sector was 0.91 percent higher and the property sector rose 1.47 percent. 

The top gainer on Hang Seng was Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd, up 6.21 percent, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, which was down 1.71 percent. 

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 1.06 percent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.72 percent.

 The yuan was quoted at 6.339 per U.S. dollar at 08:13 GMT, 0.3 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3565.

 The top gainers among H-shares were China Merchants Bank Co Ltd up 3.86 percent, followed by China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd gaining 3.62 percent and China Communications Construction Co Ltd up by 3.41 percent.

 The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Byd Co Ltd, which was down 0.48 percent, China Telecom Corp Ltd, which fell 0.6 percent, and China Construction Bank Corp down by 0.8 percent. 

About 1.72 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 55.4 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 3.10 billion shares a day. 

The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.47 billion. 

At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.36 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.64 as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was 2.8 percent. - Reuters