HK Hot Stocks-China banks rally,SHK Properties jumps
HONG KONG, July 7 (Reuters) - At 0304 GMT, the Hang Seng Index .HSI had extended gains to rise 1.3 percent to 21,692.64, tracking a 4 percent rally on the Shanghai bourse.
The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of top locally listed Chinese companies rose 2.2 percent, led by gains in banking stocks after positive earnings forecasts from three lenders.
Here are some of the stocks on the move.
* Chinese banks rallied after China Merchants Bank (3968.HK) 600036.HK and China CITIC Bank (0998.HK) joined the nation's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK)601398.HK, in issuing positive earnings estimates.
All three banks forecast at least 50 percent growth in their first-half net profit.
ICBC rose 1.8 percent, China Merchants Bank surged 6.1 percent and CITIC Bank gained 3 percent.
Bank of Communications (3328.HK), China's fourth-largest lender by assets, advanced 3.9 percent.
* Offshore oil producer CNOOC (0883.HK) gained 3 percent, as crude oil prices hovered around record levels.
* Shares in bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearings Ltd (HKEx) (0388.HK) dropped 1.5 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the stock to HK$85 from HK$120, deeming it expensive at current valuations.
* Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016.HK) jumped 3.2 percent after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral, saying the recent correction in the stock price had more than discounted the weakness in the property market.
* Bank of East Asia (0023.HK) fell 1.5 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock to underweight from equal-weight on reduced earnings expectations for 2008. (Reporting by Parvathy Ullatil; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)
