Hong Kong’s main Hang Seng index rose to a more than one-week high by lunch break on Monday, as strength in overseas markets provided support, with banks and financial stocks leading the charge, while China's H-shares index climbed to an over two-week high.

Chinese financial stocks rose after their strong quarterly performance, while expectations of an interest rate raise also gave the sector a boost, while many investors stayed on the sidelines for hints from China-U.S. trade talks, traders said.

By lunch break, the Hang Seng index was up 458.09 points or 1.51 per cent at 30,738.76. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 2.06 per cent to 12,314.56. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares edged up 0.1 per cent while the IT sector rose 1.01 per cent, the financial sector was 2.03 per cent higher and property sector rose 2.03 per cent.

The top gainer on Hang Seng was BOC Hong Kong Holdings Ltd , up 4.7 per cent, while the biggest loser was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd, which was down 3.02 per cent.

MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index gained 0.96 per cent. The top gainers among H-shares were Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd, up 5.92 per cent, followed by China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, gaining 5.5 per cent, and Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd up 4.6 per cent.

The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were BYD Co Ltd, which was down 5.94 per cent, China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, which fell 2.7 per cent, and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd down 0.98 per cent. About 874.29 million Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 48.2 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.81 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.66 billion.

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