HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks ended higher after China unveiled more details of its “New Silk Road” plan to boost trade and economic relations with Eurasia and Africa.
Hints of further monetary easing in comments from China’s central-bank governor also helped push up stocks.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.51% closed up 1.5% to 24,855.37, capping its biggest daily percentage gain since late January. The mainland-China-tracking Hang Seng China Enterprises HSCEI, +3.43% climbed 3.4%.
On the mainland itself, the Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +2.59% popped 2.6% higher to 3,786.57, its highest settlement since March 2008.
Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he expected the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, part of the wider Silk Road trade-promotion plan to better link regional infrastructures, to boost annual trade between China and the economies involved to more than $2.5 trillion.
The plan is slated to include investment in railways, roads, power grids, oil and gas pipelines, ports and other such facilities, and this helped lift the related stocks.
