Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index rose for seven days in a row to end at a new high, as strength in energy shares offset weakness in IT and finance plays. At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 27.99 points or 0.08 per cent at 32,958.69. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.97 per cent to 13,620.93.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 3.7 per cent, while the IT sector dipped 0.97 per cent, the financial sector was 0.14 per cent lower and property sector dipped 0.58 per cent.
The top gainer on Hang Seng was PetroChina Co Ltd up 5.25 per cent, while the biggest loser was Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd which was down 2.49 per cent. China's main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.4 per cent at 3,560.7329 points, while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.19 per cent.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was barely changed while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.76 per cent . The yuan was quoted at 6.3885 per US dollar at 08:22 GMT, 0.31 per cent firmer than the previous close of 6.4084.
As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 10.07 per cent for the year, while China's H-share index is up 15.2 per cent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 10.07 per cent this month.
Top gainers among H-shares were CITIC Securities Co Ltd up 11.98 per cent, followed by China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd gaining 5.62 per cent and Huatai Securities Co Ltd up by 5.32 per cent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd which was down 2.49 per cent, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd which fell 2.4 per cent and BYD Co Ltd down by 2.2 per cent.
About 4.02 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 188.1 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 2.14 billion shares a day. Volume traded in the previous trading session was 4.08 billion. At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 28.00 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 15.01 as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was 2.6 pe rcent. So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has risen by 2.44 per cent to HK$21.68 trillion.
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