HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks kicked off the week on a moderately upbeat note following a positive November jobs report in the US signalling labour market improvement. Yet the gains were relatively muted as investor sentiment remains tentative ahead next week’s meeting by the Federal Reserve’s policy making board.
In afternoon trade, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.41 per cent or 92.10 points at 22,327.99, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index that tracks mainland Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong was up 0.33 per cent or 32.24 points to 9866.52.
“Investors are quite reluctant to get into the market,” said Louis Wong, director of Philip Capital Management in Hong Kong. “For the US, the hike signals a stronger economy. But in Hong Kong, a US rate hike is definitely not a piece of good news when our local economy is going down.”
Wong said that the pharmaceutical industry is poised to continue to outperform the market in the near term, with many reporting satisfactory results for the first nine months of this year. Some banks have issued bullish reports on individual companies as well,Wong said.
A sub index tracking the media sector rose 1.32 per cent, while mining was up 0.8 per cent, and food and beverages added 0.8 per cent.
Among the media sector, Creative China leapt 37.53 per cent to HK$7, followed by ShiFang Holding, which jumped 24.56 per cent to HK$2.13 and Branding China which rose 9.3 per cent to HK$3.99.
Chinese demand however is expected to weaken into next year, with commodities remaining unpopular as investments. Fitch Ratings issued a downbeat outlook for the global mining sector, with most international mining companies placed on negative outlook or negative watch.
Major indexes in China continued their upward trend from the early morning, with the Shanghai Composite Index closing the session at 3538.64, up 0.39 per cent or 13.65 points, while the CSI300, a tracker of large companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, rising 0.45 per cent or 16.61 points to 3694.20.
The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.21 per cent or 26.95 points to close at 2260.21 while the Nasdaq-style ChiNext was up 2.02 per cent or 54.33 points at 2746.49.
Kenny Tang Sing-hing, chief executive of Jun Yang Securities said that mainland stocks are doing well and will likely see continued improvement in the later part of the week.
Energy companies were trading down beat, tracking the drop in oil prices below US$40 per barrel. Shares of CNOOC were down 3.8 per cent, while PetroChina eased 1.3 per cent. Exchange operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing was up 0.5 per cent at HK$207.
In other action, China’s largest brokerage Citic Securities said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday that it couldn’t contact its senior investment bankers, Chen Jun and Yan Jianlin.
Citic’s shares were down 0.1 per cent at HK$18.00.
The onshore yuan traded at 6.4013, down 0.008 per cent from Friday’s close while the offshore yuan traded at 6.4447, rising 0.03 per cent from Friday’s close.
