Hong Kong's benchmark stock index rose for the seventh straight session on Thursday, hitting a fresh 10-year high and pacing gains in Asian markets as solid United States and German economic data boosted sentiment.

At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 175.53 points or 0.57 per cent at 30,736.48. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.95 per cent to 12,203.55. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 3.1 per cent, while the IT sector rose 1.87 per cent, the financial sector was 0.47 per cent higher and property sector rose 0.48 per cent.

The top gainer on Hang Seng was Wharf Holdings Ltd up 8.7 per cent, while the biggest loser was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd, down 4.06 per cent.

China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.52 per cent at 3,386.5043 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.44 per cent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.32 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 3.26 per cent. The yuan was quoted at 6.4973 per US dollar at 08:14 GMT, 0.05 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.5005.

The top gainers among H-shares were PetroChina Co Ltd up 4.91 per cent, followed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp gaining 4.41 per cent and China Construction Bank Corp up by 2.43 per cent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd which was down 2.26 per cent, China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd which fell 1.6 per cent and China Life Insurance Co Ltd down by 1.6 per cent.

About 3.09 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 182.6 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.69 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.38 billion.

At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.43 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.93 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.8 per cent.

So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has risen by 2.16 per cent to HK$20.01 trillion. The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was lower by 0.57 per cent on the day at 4,801.92 points.

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