(Updates to close)
* HSI down 0.2 pct, CSI300 up 0.8 pct
* HK turnover lowest since Jan. 16, but high in Shanghai
* Tencent slumps after Baidu's nasty Q2 forecast
* Huaneng strong after Q1 earnings, Goldman Sachs reiterates "buy"
* Foxconn jumps on Apple's superlative earnings
By Clement Tan
HONG KONG, April 25 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares closed lower on Wednesday, surrendering early gains as a 4.7 percent slump in Tencent Holdings outweighed strength in Chinese developers on a mainland media report that Beijing is mulling ways to support housing prices.
Gains in developers underpinned mainland Chinese markets, with the Shanghai Composite Index and the broader CSI300 Index each up 0.8 percent with turnover staying at elevated levels.
By contrast, turnover on the Hong Kong bourse sank to the lowest since Jan. 16 as the Hang Seng Index closed down 0.2 percent at 20,646.3. The China Enterprises Index of the top Chinese listings in the territory was flat.
Chinese developers were standout outperformers in both markets. Investors were also cheered by another report that Chinese equity funds lifted their exposure to the sector in the last quarter while posting a combined quarterly profit of more than 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion).
"We are not going to see a dramatic improvement in the physical property market in China, but I do think some might have been too pessimistic. Transactions have so far shown some improvement," said Haitong International Securities strategist Edward Huang.
China Resources Land Ltd and China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd were the top two percentage gainers among Seng Index components, up 4.3 and 2.4 percent, respectively.
The Shanghai property subindex jumped 3.4 percent, with Poly Real Estate gaining 2.5 percent. Shenzhen-listed China Vanke rose 2.9 percent in volume almost twice its 30-day average.
EARNINGS IN FOCUS
Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings suffered its worst single-day loss in more than five months after shares of sector peer Baidu Inc slid more than 10 percent on Tuesday.
Tencent closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, but slipped 4.7 percent on Wednesday after Baidu, a Chinese Internet search company, forecast a second-quarter revenue range at the low end of Wall Street expectations.
Earnings were in focus as Chinese companies line up their first-quarter performance reports this week, which could offer investors clues to the impact of a slowing Chinese economy.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said industrial output growth in the world's second-largest economy was showing signs of acceleration in the second quarter versus the first quarter.
Huaneng Power International Inc , China's largest independent power producer, gained 1.4 percent in Hong Kong and 1.3 percent in Shanghai after posting a 306 percent jump in quarterly profit to 919.36 million yuan late on Tuesday.
In a note to clients on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs analysts said Huaneng's quarterly result "is broadly in line with (their) expectations of a significant margin recovery in 2012", while reiterating their "buy" conviction on the stock.
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd, an Apple Inc supplier, gained 2.7 percent after Apple's quarterly profit almost doubled, blowing past Wall Street estimates after a jump in iPhone sales, particularly in the greater China region. ($1 = 6.3073 Chinese yuan) (Additional reporting by Vikram Subhedar; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
No comments:
Post a Comment