After a virtually flat trading day on Thursday, the Hong Kong stock market is likely to see fairly light activity again Friday at the close of the business week, and ahead of the holiday season. Volume reached a three-month low, and that mark could be tested as early as later today. The market was barely lower on Thursday as investors also remained nervous about lingering concerns over the U.S. economy, which also prevented more than cursory bargain-hunting. The HIS is expected to remain right around 27,000 points for the rest of the year. For the day, the index eased by 12.17 points to close at 27,017.09 after trading between 26,957.65 and 27,203.89 on turnover of 77.62 billion Hong Kong dollars. The banking and property sectors were mostly higher as HSBC rose 0.15 percent, China Construction Bank was up 0.45 percent, Hang Seng Bank added 1.4 percent, Bank of China added 1.83 percent, Bank of Communications was up 0.37 percent, China Merchants Bank fell 1.25 percent, Bank of East Asia was up 0.41 percent, Cheung Kong rose 0.52 percent, Sino Land added 3.41 percent and Henderson Land was up 1.4 percent. Among the decliners, China Mobile was down 0.44 percent, HKEx was down 0.46 percent and China Life declined 0.88 percent. The market draws a modestly positive lead from Wall Street. With traders digesting mixed earnings data, the U.S. stock markets were split for most of the day on Thursday, but the major averages all moved above the unchanged line in afternoon trading. The Nasdaq outperformed the Dow and the S&P 500 amid significant strength in the tech sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq stayed positive all day after tech bellwether Oracle (ORCL) reported better than expected second quarter financial results, while weakness among financial stocks limited the upside for the other major averages. The weakness in the financial sector came after MBIA (MBI) revealed that it guaranteed $8.1 billion of collateralized debt obligations and Bear Stearns (BSC) reported the first quarterly loss in its 84-year history due to a bigger-than-expected write-down in its mortgage portfolio. The Dow and the S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq in positive territory in late-day trading, resulting in a higher close for all the major averages. The Dow closed up 38.37 points or 0.3 percent at 13,245.64, the Nasdaq closed up 39.85 points or 1.5 percent at 2,640.86 and the S&P 500 closed up 7.12 points or 0.5 percent at 1,460.12. In economic news, Hong Kong's inflation increased to 3.4 percent in November from 3.2 percent recorded in October, the government said Thursday, matching analysts' expectations. For the period of January to November, the composite CPI moved up 1.9 percent. For the 12 ended November, the composite index was on average 1.9 percent higher than in the previous year. In corporate news, Hong Kong-listed China Construction Bank will open subsidiaries in London and the Middle East - most notably in the burgeoning city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the company announced in a statement on Thursday. The bank will also will also open a branch in Doha, Qatar. China's third-biggest bank also plans to spend 31.5 billion yuan next year on capital investment and construction.
December 20, 2007 8:47 PM