HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the Year of the Monkey up 21.11 per cent after a quiet last day of trading before the Lunar New Year. Stocks opened lower, edging down in the first few minutes of trading on Friday, and ended the half day session down 0.06 per cent to 23,360.78 ahead of holidays to celebrate the Year of the Rooster. The close represented an increase of about 4,000 points compared with February 6, 2016, the last day of trading for Year of the Goat. The Hang Seng China Enterprise Index rose 21.73 per cent to 9,804.05 on Friday. “That’s not bad. We experienced a very volatile market [for the year], taking into account a lot of unexpected news,” said Louis Tse Ming-kwong, a director of VC Brokerage in Hong Kong.
Mainland Chinese markets were closed on Friday for a public holiday. The Shanghai Composite Index finished Year of the Monkey up 14.3 per cent to 3,159.17 when the market closed on Thursday. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 9.5 per cent to 1,917.32 for the year, while the CSI 300 Index gained 14.3 per cent to 3,387.96. “The outlook in the short term will be good. The [Hong Kong] stock market in the first quarter could hit the 24,000 level,” Tse said. “The market will be bolstered by the sentiment in US markets and anticipated positive earnings results from blue chips such as HSBC and Tencent Holdings,” he said. Tencent, China’s second largest technology company, closed down 0.3 per cent to HK$204.4 on Friday but gained 42 per cent in the Year of the Monkey.
HSBC, following a rise for four straight days, rose 0.07 per cent to HK$66.75on the fifth day.“In the second and third quarter we may see a correction. We are not sure if the Donald Trump magic can last for too long,” Tse said. In the second and third quarter we may see a correction. We are not sure if the Donald Trump magic can last for too long. Louis Tse Ming-kwong, director of VC Brokerage. Ben Kwong Man-bun, executive director of KGI Asia, said the stock market will remain very volatile, citing interest rate movement and the global economic outlook as uncertainties. Kwong expects to see a rise in Hong Kong stocks on the first day of trading in the Year of the Rooster next Wednesday.
Bolstered by Trump’s economic policies, the Dow broke 20,000 for the first time on Wednesday and on Thursday extended those gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are also sitting on record highs. While the energy sector was among the best performers over the past year, Tse is confident in the property sector going forward as developers have reaped strong property sales revenues from new project launches.The technology sector will be positive after Alibaba posted better than expected third quarter results, he said. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Hong Kong’s stock market will resume trading on February 1 and mainland markets will open again on February 3.
