Wednesday, 25 March 2015 17:53
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s stock market rose 0.53 percent Wednesday, boosted by a rally in Hutchison Whampoa after it said it would buy British telecom giant O2 for US$ 15.2 billion, but Shanghai sank after a 10-day winning streak.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 128.63 points to 24,528.23 on turnover of HK$ 83.59 billion ($ 10.79 billion).
The index was Asia’s best performer despite a fall on Wall Street fuelled by renewed talk of a US rate rise, after consumer prices rose in February for the first time in four months.
The Dow dipped 0.58 percent, the S&P 500 fell 0.61 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.32 percent.
Market giant Hutchison Whampoa rose 2.03 percent to HK$ 105.70 after announcing it will buy O2 from Spain’s Telefonica in a deal that could create Britain’s biggest mobile phone firm. Hutchison already owns Britain’s Three mobile phone network.
The purchase is the latest by Hutchison’s Hong Kong owner Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men.
Cheung Kong Holdings, which is also owned by Li, rose 2.18 percent to HK$ 154.70, while Macau casino operator Sands China advanced 2.34 percent to HK$ 32.80.
HSBC rose 0.37 percent to HK$ 67.35 but Tencent slipped 0.21 percent to HK$ 142.70.
In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.83 percent, or 30.68 points, to 3,660.73 on profit-taking. Turnover was 645.5 billion yuan ($ 105.1 billion).
The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, rose 1.08 percent, or 20.84 points, to 1,943.69 on turnover of 591.7 billion yuan.
“The market has risen a lot recently, so it’s no surprise to see a correction like this (in Shanghai). This kind of correction is healthy for the market,” Dai Ming, a fund manager at Hengsheng Asset Management, told Bloomberg News.
The Shanghai market surged more than 12 percent over the past 10 sessions — its best run in 23 years — helped by comments from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that the government had the firepower to support the economy if it slowed too much.
His remarks fuelled hopes Beijing will introduce more stimulus measures, following two rate cuts since November and a reduction in the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve.
Insurance companies were among the biggest losers on Wednesday. In Shanghai, New China Life Insurance fell 4.17 percent to 54.03 yuan while China Pacific Insurance dropped 3.53 percent to 32.23 yuan.
Securities firms were also lower. Shanghai-listed Huatai Securities lost 3.33 percent to 26.71 yuan and Shenzhen-listed Western Securities eased 3.70 percent to 44.50 yuan.
The Agricultural Bank of China lost 2.41 percent to 3.64 yuan in Shanghai after it reported 2014 net profit only rose 7.9 percent year-on-year to 179.46 billion yuan.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015
