Hong Kong shares rally after ceasefire announcement

Hong Kong stocks rallied on Wednesday at the opening after the US President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 656 points, or 2.61 percent, to 25,772.

The tech gauge advanced 2.95 percent to 4,817.

Tech heavyweights opened higher, with Tencent (0700) rising 3.1 percent, Alibaba (9988) and JD.com (9618) going up 2.9 percent, and Baidu (9888) jumping nearly 4 percent.

In contrast, oil majors slipped. CNOOC (0883) dropped 5.3 percent, and PetroChina (0857) opened 2.7 percent lower.

HSBC (0005) rallied 6.2 percent, while AIA (1299) rose about 5 percent at the opening.