HSBC surge helps HSI regain 20,000-point mark
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Xinhua, January 20, 2012
Shares of banking giant HSBC, which accounts for the largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, led the charge to help the Index to regain the psychological 20,000-point mark on Friday, the last trading day of the Chinese traditional Year of Rabbit.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 167.42 points or 0.84 percent, to close at 20,110.37, amid gains in the Chinese mainland markets and in other global bourses. The Index traded between a day low of 19,927.88 and a day high of 20,161.72 points.
Turnover totaled 65.96 billion HK dollars (8.5 billion U.S. dollars), compared with Thursday's 78.85 billion HK dollars.
The finance sub-index, which covers HSBC and other 11 blue chips, added 346.59 points to close at 27,707.41. HSBC alone contributed 107 points to the gains of the Hang Seng Index.
Shares of HSBC soared 3.7 percent to 64.55 HK dollars, as investors believed that the lender's financial results in 2011 would probably meet market expectations. HSBC unit and one of Hong Kong's local bank Hang Seng Bank rose 1.48 percent to 99.4 HK dollars.
Shares of another Hong Kong's local bank, Bank of East Asia, advanced 2.65 percent to 31 HK dollars. Local bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing rose 0.77 percent to 131.7 HK dollars.
Three major blue-chip insurers closed mixed in the day. China Life, one of the world's largest life insurers by market value, added 2.1 percent to 22.15 HK dollars. Ping An Insurance, China's second largest insurer, shed 0.76 percent to end at 59.15 HK dollars. Hong Kong-based AIA Group gained 0.78 percent to end at 25.85 HK dollars.
Chinese Mainland's financial heavyweights also closed mixed in the day. Shares of the ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, lost 1.11 percent to 5.37 HK dollars. China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications closed unchanged.
Bank of China fell 0.91 percent to 3.27 HK dollars. BOC Hong Kong, an unit of Bank of China, gained nearly 2 percent to end at 20.65 HK dollars.
Shares of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers which accounts for the second largest weighting of the Hang Seng Index, edged up 0.66 percent to 76.7 HK dollars. Shares of China's biggest Internet company Tencent Holdings gained 1.23 percent to 181.7 HK dollars.
Shares of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's flagship carrier, advanced 1.94 percent to end at 14.68 HK dollars after the carrier said in the day that it would buy six Airbus A350-900 passenger planes for 1.628 billion U.S. dollars.
Want Want China, one of the country's biggest snack makers, was the worst-performing blue chip in the day, with its shares shedding 3.1 percent to 7.51 HK dollars.
In the entire Chinese Year of Rabbit, which will end on Sunday, the benchmark Hang Seng Index shed 3798 points, or 15.8 percent.
For thousands of years, the Chinese have named each year after an animal in a 12-year cycle. 2012 is the Year of Dragon. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.76 HK dollars)
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