Hong Kong shares extended yesterday’s gains and hit a new four-year high above 26,000 points on Wednesday, amid growing expectations of an imminent US rate cut.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 262 points, or 1 percent, to 26,200, a new high since September 2021, after once tipping 26,296.
The Hang Seng Tech index rose 1.3 percent to 5,902 points.
The full-day main board turnover reached HK$288 billion.
Alibaba (9988) edged up by 0.63 percent to a new four-year high and Tencent (0700) gained nearly 1 percent and reached a four-and-a-half-year high.
Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (3750) dropped by 1.2 percent following rumours that it is expected to soon resume production at a lithium mine in Yichun.
JD.com (9618) marched 4.6 percent.
Pop Mart (9992) lost 4.5 percent to a nearly one-month low.
In mainland China, shares also rose slightly, lifted by encouraging signs from the inflation data.
The Shanghai Composite Index edged up by 0.13 percent to 3,812 points while the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.4 percent to 12,557.
China's consumer prices fell at the fastest pace in six months in August but producer deflation eased, suggesting policymakers' efforts to rein in excessive competition and price cuts in key industrial sectors were starting to bear fruit.
The producer price index dropped 2.9 percent year-on-year in August, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Wednesday, narrowing from a 3.6 percent decline the previous month. Economists polled by Reuters had projected a 2.9 percent fall.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korean shares hit a record high on revived investor hopes around President Lee Jae Myung's push to boost the domestic stock
market.
The benchmark KOSPI stock index once rose as much as 1.75 percent to 3,317.04 points in afternoon trade, surpassing its previous record of 3,316.08 hit in June 2021 and closed 1.67 percent higher.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.9 percent.
STAFF REPORTER AND REUTERS
