Wall Street’s overnight gains lifted Hong Kong’s benchmark index Thursday, led by exporter Li & Fung and China Unicom, though weakness on the Chinese mainland’s bourses because of declines in domestic commodities firms damped local investor interest and narrowed early gains late in the session.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 78.41 pts, or 0.37%, to close at 21,167.27 after rising to a high of 21,248.58 in the morning session.

Market volume fell sharply to HK$61.86B, down from 118.81B HK dollars Wednesday, when turnover surged on active trading in China Mobile following Vodafone’s stake sale.

On Wednesday, the DJIA rose for the 5th time in 6 sessions, closing 0.5% higher, as a report from the US Federal Reserve suggested the economic expansion was continuing.

Easing concerns about a slowdown in the US economic recovery boosted exporter Li & Fung, which derives the bulk of its income from US customers. The company became the best-performing blue- chip, rising 5.5% to 42 HK dollars.

China’s monthly trade figures are due Friday, while inflation data are scheduled to be issued Saturday.

Among mainland-related firms, telecom operator China Unicom rose 3.4% to 11.48 HK dollars, boosted by news that Apple’s iPhone 4 has been awarded a mainland network access license, indicating the Chinese mobile operator could soon launch the popular device in the mainland.

China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, was nearly unchanged at 77.45 HK dollars. It fell 3.8% Wednesday after Vodafone sold its 3.2% stake in the mobile operator at 79.20 HK dollars per share.

The mainland’s stock markets fell on Thursday, dragged lower in part by profit-taking in steel makers following recent gains. The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 1.4% at 2656.35.

China Construction Bank Corp. gained 0.9% to 6.59 HK dollars. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. climbed 0.7% to 5.81 HK dollars. The companies are the World’s two largest banks by market value.

Agricultural Bank, the nation’s third-largest lender by market value, jumped 3.6% after Credit Suisse said investors may be underestimating the lender’s potential.

Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest bank by assets, gained 0.8% to 4.04 HK dollars after saying it has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission on the proposed rights issue of A shares and H shares.

Energy producers gained after the price of oil rose yesterday for the first time in three days. Cnooc Ltd. rose 1.6% to 13.70 HK dollars and was the 2nd biggest contributor to the Hang Seng Index’s advance. PetroChina Co., Asia’s largest company by market value, increased 1% to 8.53 HK dollars.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Crude oil for October delivery rose 0.8 percent yesterday in New York. One U.S. dollar equals 7.8 HK dollars.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Sep 9th, 2010and filed underBRIC, Latest News, Markets.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site