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Strategies & Market Trends : China Telecom Ltd (CHL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Shread who wrote (82)	8/14/1998 2:20:00 AM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149

HK stocks sharply up in morning on'China Telecom Thursday August 13, 11:12 pm Eastern Time HONG KONG, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks opened sharply higher on Friday boosted by the strength of China Telecom (0941.HK) which helped push the Hang Seng Index up 153 points, or 2.30 percent, at 6,813 points in early trade. China Telecom surged HK$0.65, or 6.99 percent, to HK$9.95 after the company said the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong had granted it a two year waiver allowing it to reduce its minimum public shareholding requirement to 18 percent from 23.5 percent. ''It enables the parent company to increase the total shareholdings,'' said Terry Cheung, sales director at Core Pacific-Yamaichi (HK). Brokers and the China Telecom news triggered a rebound in the market, which had been battered by concerns about a weak yen and the stability of the Hong Kong and Chinese currencies. The blue chip index extended gains and was up 261 points, or 3.92 percent, at 6,921 points after the first 30 minutes of trade. The Hang Seng had dropped 5.1 percent this week to end on Thursday at its lowest close since April 1993 at 6,660.41. ''Today the market's performance is very encouraging and slightly unexpected, especially given that the other Asian markets performed quite badly this morning before our market opened,'' said Percy Au-Young, sales director at DBS Securities. He said investors seemed to be squaring their short positions ahead of the long weekend. Monday is a public holiday in Hong Kong. "This movement is a good signal," said Au-Young. ''There were rumours there would be another attack on the local currency over the weekend. If there is going to be an attack, the hedge funds would know about it and continue to sell down the market, but since it has moved up, it probably means they are not preparing for another attack.'' Richard Verin, head of equities trading at Credit Suisse First Boston, noted that Mexican and Brazilian shares ended higher on Thursday, helping Hong Kong recover. "The emerging markets did better," he said. However, the Hong Kong dollar remained a nagging concern. Short-term interbank rates were firmer on Friday with the overnight rate at 8.50-9.00 percent compared with a close of 8.25-8.75 percent on Thursday and the three-month interbank rate at 12.11-12.50 percent compared with 11.70-12.25 percent. HSBC (0005.HK) jumped HK$7.00 to HK$158.00 and Hang Seng Bank (0011.HK) rose HK$1.70 to HK$38.50. The August contract on the Hang Seng Index rose 280 points to 6,890 and the September contract gained 260 to 6,920 points. The red chip Hang Seng China-Affiliated Corporations Index rose eight points, or 1.37 percent, to 600 and the H-share index added seven points, or 2.52 percent, to 282. * Reuters Terminal users can see related news by double clicking on: (HK) (STX) * For index, major highlights double click on: (HK/MENU) HK stocks menu (0#.INX.HK) All Hang Seng indices (^HSI - news) Hang Seng index (0#.HSI) Hang Seng index components (^HSCC - news) Red-chips index (0#.HSCC) Red-chips index components (^HSCE - news) H-shares index (0#.HSCE) H-shares index components (.AV.HK) Top 20 by volume (.AM.HK) Top 20 by turnover (.NG.HK) Net gain leaders (.PG.HK) Percentage gain leaders (.NL.HK) Net loss leaders (.PL.HK) Percentage loss leaders (0#HSI:) Hang Seng index futures (HFE/FUTEX1) Futures contracts prices and contract details (HKG/OPTEX1) Options contracts prices and contract details (HK/HOT) HK Hot Stocks Highlights (SZ/MENU) Shenzhen stocks menu (SS/MENU) Shanghai stocks menu More Quotes and News: HANG SENG C C I (HSI Services Ltd) (^HSCC - news) HANG SENG C E I (HSI Services Ltd) (^HSCE - news) HANG SENG INDEX (HSI Services Ltd) (^HSI - news) Related News Categories: international, US Market News Help Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?