Hong Kong's benchmark index Hang Seng ended Friday at a record high, capping its seventh week of gains, amid optimism towards global economic recovery and accelerated money inflows from mainland China. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 499.67 points or 1.53 per cent at 33,154.12. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 2.51 per cent to 13,723.96.

The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.3 per cent, while the IT sector rose 2.37 per cent, the financial sector was 2.22 per cent higher and property sector rose 1.27 per cent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was China Construction Bank Corp, up 6.07 per cent, while the biggest loser was Lenovo Group Ltd, which was down 1.27 per cent.

China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.3 per cent at 3,559.0875 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.39 per cent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.48 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.16 per cent.

The yuan was quoted at 6.3184 per US dollar at 08:17 GMT, 0.21 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.3315. As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 9.14 per cent this year, while China's H-share index was up 14.3 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 9.14 per cent this month.

Top gainers among H-shares were Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd up 6.41 per cent, followed by China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd gaining 6.38 per cent and China Construction Bank Corp up by 6.07 per cent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Sinopharm Group Co Ltd, which was down 0.74 per cent, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd which fell 0.4 per cent and CRRC Corp Ltd down by 0.4 per cent.

About 4.01 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 179.7 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.23 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 3.56 billion.

At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 28.36 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 14.9 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.7 per cent.

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