Hong Kong shares hit three-week high, China creeps higher

Business & Markets 2013
Written by Reuters
Thursday, 25 April 2013 12:59
A + / A - / Reset
HONG KONG (April 25): Hong Kong shares climbed to their highest in
three weeks on Thursday, spurred by recovering commodity prices and
positive quarterly earnings from China Minsheng Bank, the country's
seventh-largest lender.
At midday, the Hang Seng Index was up 1.1 percent at 22,429.6 points,
while the China Enterprises Index of the leading Chinese listings in Hong
Kong rose 1.4 percent. Both were at their highest since April 3.
The Shanghai Composite Index and the CSI300 of the leading Shanghai
and Shenzhen A-share listings were each up 0.2 percent.
"Minsheng's first quarter earnings were pretty solid, but much of its
gains in Hong Kong today is down to short covering," said Jackson
Wong, Tanrich Securities' vice-president of equity sales.
Short selling interest in Minsheng Bank's H-share listing averaged 26
percent in the first three days of the week, way above the 9.8 percent
average for the broader Hong Kong market.
On Thursday, Minsheng's Hong Kong shares jumped 3.2 percent to its
highest since March 28 after China's seventh-largest listed bank posted
a 20 percent rise in first quarter net profit from a year earlier.
But its Shanghai listing fell 1 percent, tracking losses in the Chinese
banking sector on the mainland after regulators ordered banks to report
suspicious or irregular fixed-income transactions as part of a clampdown on the country's vast interbank market.
The People's Bank of China, which regulates the 24.4 trillion yuan ($4 trillion) interbank bond market, told commercial banks
at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday that it was preparing tougher regulation to deal with substitute holdings.
Haitong Securities jumped 3.7 percent in Hong Kong and 1.9 percent in Shanghai after also posting favourable results.
China Pacific Insurance rose 1.7 percent in Hong Kong and 0.2 percent in Shanghai after reporting a 241 percent surge in
first quarter net profit from a year earlier.
Bank of China , the first of the "Big Four" Chinese banks to post quarterly earnings later in the day along with a clutch of bellwether Chinese companies, inched up 0.2 percent in Hong Kong and was flat in Shanghai.