The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday ended the five-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 900 points or 4.4 percent on its way to a fresh nine-month closing low. The Hang Seng Index finished just above the 21,850-point plateau, and now traders are expecting to see the market extend its gains when it kicks off trade on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive after the Greek parliament passed a vote of confidence in the government's new cabinet, supporting austerity measures to combat that nation's debt woes. Commodities also provide support, led by gold and oil, while steel, technology and property stocks also figure to rise.
The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the energy companies.
For the day, the index surged 251.08 points or 1.16 percent to finish at 21,850.59 after trading between 21,656.06 and 21,875.16 on volume of 69.51 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Among the gainers, Shenhua Energy jumped 3.5 percent, while Yanzhou Coal climbed 3.1 percent, China Coal added 1.4 percent and PetroChina collected 1.8 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks moved sharply higher on Tuesday with traders expressing optimism ahead of the crucial confidence vote in Greece.
Traders were betting that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's reshuffled cabinet would survive the confidence vote, which was held after the close of trading on Wall Street. The confidence vote is a key step in Papandreou's efforts to win support for additional austerity measures.
The markets also benefited from a report from the National Association of Realtors showing a smaller than expected drop in existing home sales in May. Existing home sales fell 3.8 percent to an annual rate of 4.81 million in May from a downwardly revised 5.00 million in April.
Economists had expected existing home sales to fall by 5.9 percent to 4.75 million from the 5.05 million originally reported for the previous month. Even though sales fell by less than expected, the annual rate of existing home sales in May was the lowest since a 4.64 million rate in November of 2010.
Among individual stocks, Best Buy (BBY) rose by 2.7 percent after the consumer electronics retailer said its board has authorized a new $5 billion share repurchase program. The board also approved a 7 percent increase in Best Buy's quarterly cash dividend to $0.16 per share.
The major averages remained firmly positive going into the close, ending the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow rose 109.63 points or 0.9 percent to 12,190.01, the NASDAQ jumped 57.60 points or 2.2 percent to 2,687.26 and the S&P 500 advanced 17.16 points or 1.3 percent to 1,295.52.
In economic news, inflation in Hong Kong jumped to 5.2 percent in May from 4.6 percent in April, the Census and Statistics Department said on Tuesday, in line with expectations. The underlying inflation rate, which excludes effects of government's one-off measures, advanced to 5.1 percent from 4.4 percent in the previous month. In seasonally adjusted terms, the average rate of increase in CPI for the three-months ended May was 0.6 percent, compared to 0.7 percent increase in three months to April.
Also, China's central bank has tightened the rules of offshore yuan deals to curb transactions for speculative trade, reports said on Tuesday. Under the new rules, offshore banks in China's yuan settlement program must ensure that their clients' currency transactions are for their real trade payment or business needs, reports said citing information on the website of the central bank's Beijing branch. The latest move clearly reflects China's concern about the huge speculative funds flows to the country.
In corporate news, China Real Estate Information Corp. has entered into a new strategic partnership agreement with Baidu, Inc. As per the agreement, CRIC will become Baidu's premier strategic online real estate partner and will have the exclusive right to sell Baidu's real estate brandlink product. The expanded strategic agreement will take effect in August 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, CRIC will pay Baidu a total of RMB 180 million over the three-year term, in addition to RMB 200 million over four years under the 2010 agreements.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.