HSI breaks back above 17,000

Staff reporter and agencies

Hong Kong's stock market rose for a third consecutive trading day, breaking past the 17,000 mark for the first time this year.

But futures fell on the news that US inflation rose 3.2 percent last month from a year ago, higher than the market estimates of 3.1 percent, supporting predictions that the Federal Reserve may stick with high interest rates longer than expected.

The Hang Seng Index futures fell 0.3 percent but S&P 500 futures once advanced 0.6 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index jumped over 500 points to 17,093.5 on the back of a rally in tech shares. The three-day rally has lifted the HSI up by 863 points.

Turnover on the main board amounted to almost HK$150 billion, the highest in over six months.

The Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 4.6 percent to 3,643 with Xiaomi and Bilibili surging over 11 percent. JD.com advanced 7.8 percent while Tencent and Meituan rose more than 4 percent.

Mainland property stocks soared on the news that China Vanke had won an 80 billion yuan (HK$89.36 billion) loan from banks.

Vanke jumped 10 percent while Longfor was up 14 percent, making it the best performing blue chip.

China Unicom Hong Kong was the worst-performer, closing more than 1 percent lower against the market after its subsidiary bought a 23.08 percent stake in Shanghai-listed Quantumctek for 1.9 billion yuan.

The Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.41 percent to 3,055 while the Shenzhen Component Index inched up by 0.51 percent to 9,630.

Chris Liu Hui, senior portfolio manager of China A shares at Invesco, expects A shares to perform better than last year, as interest rates cuts will give a strong impetus to the inflow of global capital into emerging markets.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 0.83 percent and the Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index grew by 0.96 percent.

After reaching a record high this month, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell for the second day in a row, closing 22 points lower at 38,797 points.

It continued to retreat as Bank of Japan officials are edging closer to raising interest rates and will decide whether to move this month at next week's policy meeting, with the outcome currently too close to call.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan's chief executive Jamie Dimon said debt and equity markets in the United States have some bubble-like characteristics.

His comments came as chip giant Nvidia's share declined 2 percent. Dimon also called on the Fed to start cutting rates after June.

In money markets, the yuan closed at an over one-and-a-half month high of 7.1743 against the US dollar, while the yen weakened for the first time in six days.

Editorial: Page 4