Hong Kong shares close morning higher in thin trade
Share prices closed a relatively rangebound morning session higher in thin trade, rebounding slightly from yesterday's heavy losses, although investors continued to exercise caution after a volatile session on Wall Street overnight, dealers said.
The Hang Seng index closed the morning up 33.17 points or 0.31% at 10,591.98, off a low of 10,529.92 and a high of 10,631.55, on turnover of just 2.933 billion hkd.
The Hang Seng July contract was at 10,585 points.
The China Enterprises index was up 12.09 points at 2,213.92 and the CAC index 7.11 points higher at 1,201.99.
The GEM index was down 0.41 points at 177.59 on turnover of 65.858 million hkd.
The Tracker Fund was up 0.05 hkd at 10.70.
DBS Vickers sales director Steven Leung said the market had been very quite during the session, with most investors staying on the sidelines amid continued concerns over accounting policies in the US and the outlook for domestic markets.
"I think there is a bit of skepticism about the outlook for the Hong Kong market and I would expect rangebound trade to continue this afternoon," he said.
"Although we saw a rebound on Nasdaq, it was mainly the technology issues that did well in the US and Hong Kong does not have too many tech companies," Leung said.
He said trade is likely to remain thin for the rest of the day and believes market turnover will struggle to reach 6 billion hkd, with investors likely putting aside money for the upcoming listings of CK Life Sciences and BOC Hong Kong.
Cheung Kong was up 0.50 hkd at 65.75, Sino Land down 0.05 at 2.775, Sun Hung Kai Properties down 0.50 at 59.50 and Henderson Land down 0.10 at 32.50.
PCCW was up 0.03 at 1.77 after agreeing to form an IT services joint venture with China Telecom which will target financial sector clients in China, with bargain hunting also boosting interest in the stock, dealers said.
Of the other telecommunications stocks, Hutchison Whampoa was 0.50 higher at 59.75, China Mobile up 0.20 at 23.10 and China Unicom steady at 6.05.
In the financial sector, HSBC was unchanged at 88.50, Bank of East Asia up 0.20 at 15.60 and Hang Seng Bank steady at 83.75.
