Nikkei:10,754.03 (+129.94) Hang Seng:23,396.42 (+58.40) Shanghai Comp:2,919.84 (+14.80)
SHANGHAI SHARES rose, lifting the Hong Kong market, and looked poised for further gains thanks to subsiding inflation fears, attractive valuations and benign chart patterns.
The Shanghai Composite, Asia’s best performing benchmark in February, extended its run and rose 0.5 per cent.
While a pair of purchasing managers’ surveys showed Chinese manufacturing grew at its slowest in at least half a year last month, investors saw that as an encouraging sign that Beijing’s campaign to prevent the economy from overheating was bringing results.
Disappointing earnings report from banking giant HSBC hit its shares, which had seen heavy buying interest ahead of the results, sending them as much as 5.1 per cent lower to a one-month low.
Property developers rose after industry bellwether Sun Hung Kai Properties, Asia’s biggest developer by market value, reported a 60 per cent surge in first-half profit. Cheung Kong Holdings, said to be planning Hong Kong’s first yuan-denominated share offering, was up 2.9 per cent.
Mainland banking shares were also broadly higher. – (Reuters)
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