HK shares end 3 day losing streak; China stocks advance

Fri Jul 3, 2009 5:00am EDT
 
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* China shares gain 5.5 pct in best week in 2 months

* HK shares give up 2 percent in holiday-shortened week

* Chinese shampoo maker BaWang soars on debut (Updates to close)

By Parvathy Ullatil and Claire Zhang

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, July 3 (Reuters) - Chinese stocks rose 0.9 percent on Friday and scored a 5.5 percent weekly gain, the best in eight weeks, with coal and property shares strong as brisk lending growth and rising power output boosted optimism over the economy.

Hong Kong shares, which spent most of the session in the red after a bleak U.S. jobs report, clawed back 0.1 percent by the end of trade on Friday, snapping a three-day losing spell, as Chinese insurers climbed, tracking strong gains on the mainland markets.

Defying the lukewarm broader Hong Kong market, shampoo maker BaWang International (Group) Holdings (1338.HK) soared more than 30 percent on its debut, after its $214 million IPO ranked among the most popular issues this year with its retail portion subscribed more than 400 times. [ID:nHKG280265]

"That's the way the Hong Kong market functions; when something is hot everyone wants a piece of it," said Jackson Wong, investment manager with Tanrich Securities.

Shares in company, which makes an "anti-falling" shampoo, rose 27.3 percent to HK$3.03 by the end of the session.

Another market debutante, China Qinfa (0866.HK) also fared well with shares in the coal trading company tacking on 6.3 percent.

TURNOVER DROPS IN HONG KONG

The benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI finished 25.35 points higher at 18,203.40, but lost 2.1 percent on the holiday-shortened week.

Turnover slowed to HK$54.3 billion from Thursday's HK$68.4 billion ahead of the Independence Day holiday in the U.S. on Friday.

Asia's biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) advanced 1.5 percent to HK$5.96 as crude oil fell towards $66 per barrel after the latest U.S. payroll data signalled the world was still grappling with a deep recession.

"The market may be cautious going into next week when Alcoa kicks off the corporate reporting season," said Andrew Sullivan, sales trader with MainFirst Securities. "But there is still a lot of money waiting on the sidelines and the index should continue to move between 17,500 and 19,000 points."

The China Enterprises Index .HSCE, which represents top locally listed mainland Chinese stocks, rose 0.1 percent to 10,983.77.  Continued...

 

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