Hong Kong stocks rebound after sharp fall

Hong Kong shares bounced up 185.70 points, or 0.93 percent, ending Friday's trading at 20211.28 after nose-diving nearly 400 points on Thursday.

HK blue chips closed near their intra-day high, led by property counters, in roller-coaster trade, with Hang Seng Index fluctuating between 19,757 and 20,213. Turnover was high at 70.7 billion HK dollars (about nine billion U.S. dollars), making it the fourth largest turnover in record.

Analysts said that the wide fluctuation of the stock market these days were mainly due to profit-taking as investors wanted to lock-in profits when the benchmark index had hit record high repeatedly.

"The fluctuation is expected to continue as investors were very sensitive at a time when Hang Seng Index is at a high level," said Wong Shiu Hoi, managing director and chief executive of Taifook Securities Group Limited.

He predicted that Hong Kong shares could grow substantially only after the listed companies announce their annual results of 2006.

Hong Kong stock market kicked off its first trading day of 2007 on bright note Tuesday, up 40.12 points, or 0.20 percent, at 20, 004.84, breaking the previous record high of 20,001.91 set on Dec.28, 2006.

The share prices closed at another record high on Wednesday, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index ending up 103.21 points, up 0.51 percent, at 20,413.39 after hitting an all-time high of 20,554.58.

But on Thursday, the share prices plunged 387.81 points, or 1.9 percent, to close at 20,025.58 Thursday, with turnover rocketing to 76.5 billion HK dollars, the second highest turnover in record.

On Friday, China mainland stocks, which had been hotly pursued by investors, slid across the board but managed to recover part of their losses. H-share index ended down 112 points at 10,235, off low of 9,938 and high of 10,264.

Property counters led the market on news that Citibank HK has cut its mortgage rate to P-3 percent. Cheung Kong soaring 4.3 percent to 100 HK dollars. SHKP and New World jumped 6.6 percent to 96.25 HK dollars and 16.5 HK dollars, respectively while Sino Land shot up 3.3 percent to 19.28 HK dollars.

China insurance stocks narrowed their early losses. China Life fell 3 percent to 26.1 HK dollars, off a low of 24.6 HK dollars. PICC tumbled 4 percent to 4.51 HK dollars. Ping An plummeted 9 percent to 39.7 percent, but off a low of 38.85 HK dollars.

Oil counters were lower in tandem with the soft crude oil prices. CNOOC dipped 2 percent to 7.05 HK dollars, Petrochina fell 1.3 percent to 10.46 HK dollars, but Sinopec was firmer by 0.6 percent to 7.31 HK dollars.

However, the downward trend of oil prices boosted the shares of airline companies. China Air jumped to record high of 5.06 HK dollars before closing at 5.00 HK dollars, up 3.31 percent. China East Air rose 3.4 percent to 2.13 HK dollars, with China South Air up 4.62 percent to 3.40 HK dollars. (One U.S. dollar equals to 7.78 HK dollars)

Source: Xinhua