HK Shares End Higher On Renewed Interest In Telecoms
sg.biz.yahoo.com
Friday, March 3 5:11 PM SGT
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Hong Kong shares ended higher Friday on rekindled buying interest in telecommunications and high-tech stocks amid healthy liquidity, traders said.
The Hang Seng Index opened weaker but quickly moved up on the back of foreign buying in blue-chip telecom stocks like China Telecom and Hutchison Whampoa, as well as red-chip high-tech favorite Legend Holdings, traders said.
The blue-chip barometer ended up 2.1%, or 348.43 points, at 17285.24, after trading between 16795.80 and 17361.92.
The broader All Ordinaries Index finished ahead 2.3%, or 168.12 points, at 7492.34.
Trading volume was valued at HK$17.21 billion, compared with Thursday's HK$16.35 billion.
The Hang Seng March futures contract closed 400 points higher at 17210 on strong volume of 13,653 contracts, spurred by short-covering activities, said traders.
Flush liquidity also encouraged buying, traders said.
"Money is coming in on the back of the PCCW (Pacific Century CyberWorks) deal," said Michael Liang, vice-president of Asian Equities at Daiwa Securities, referring to the mega merger between Pacific Century CyberWorks and Cable & Wireless HKT.
"It's a liquidity-driven market today," he said.
With the market beginning to digest the biggest-ever corporate merger in Asia excluding Japan, investment houses are starting to issue 'buy' recommendations for CyberWorks and C&W HKT, giving an added boost to those share prices.
C&W HKT closed 6.5%, or HK$1.45, higher at HK$23.70, while CyberWorks added 5.8%, or HK$1.2, to HK$21.90. |
