Asian Economic News
Hong Kong Stocks May Extend Gains
11/30/2009 8:35 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The Hong Kong stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the two-day losing streak that had cost it nearly 1,500 points or 7 percent in the process. The Hang Seng Index moved back above the 21,800-point plateau, and investors are optimistic that the market will continue to move higher when it opens for business on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mildly positive as the markets continue to assess the contagion from the Dubai debt crisis. Commodities are forecast to provide modest support, while financials and properties also are expected to trade higher. The European markets finished sharply lower, while the U.S. bourses were firm - and the Asian markets are also tipped to move slightly higher.
The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Monday, pushed higher by a surge from the financials. Telecoms also finished higher, as did the shipping companies.
For the day, the index surged 687.00 points or 3.3 percent to finish at 21,821.50 after trading between 21,687.69 and 21,924.08 on turnover of 79.84 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Among the gainers, HSBC added 4.48 percent, while Standard Chartered gained 4.2 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was up 4.7 percent, China Construction Bank climbed 5.2 percent, China Mobile added 1.18 percent, China Unicom gained 1.17 percent, China Telecom Corp jumped 2.4 percent, China COSCO Holdings climbed 4.52 percent, China Shipping Development was up 3.45 percent, China Shipping Container Lines gained 4.38 percent and Pacific Basin Shipping added 4.26 percent.
Bucking the trend, Sands China plunged 10.2 percent in its market debut.
The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as stocks were able to eke out modest gains to open the week on Monday, with a mixed set of market drivers prompting choppy trading. The major averages were all able to close in positive territory, offsetting a small portion of Friday's losses.
Trader optimism may have been boosted by data from the Institute for Supply Management - Chicago, which reported that its index of activity in the Chicago manufacturing sector rose to 56.1 in November from 54.2 in October, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the sector. The increase by the index surprised economists, who had expected the index to slip to 53.3.
Some of the gains may have also be driven by reassurances from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, which said that it would extend additional funds for local and foreign banks to cope with the financial crisis resulting from the potential failure of Dubai World.
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