Hong Kong, Chinese shares post weekly gains

Hong Kong shares snapped a four-week losing streak as earnings-driven gains provided some respite with markets struggling to recover from steep losses earlier this month that has knocked 12 percent off the Hang Seng benchmark in August to date.
The index, however, fell on Friday, led by losses in heavyweight cyclical stocks, while turnover sank to the lowest in a month, as the Euro zone crisis lingers and ahead of a speech from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later in the day, with some hopeful of another round of asset purchases.
"Current sentiment is not good, institutional investors are facing pressures of fund redemption... so people are generally impatient and want to cash in if results are poor," said Alan Lam, Julius Baer's Greater China Equity Analyst. The Hang Seng Index slipped 0.9 percent to 19,582.9 points on the day, but ended the week up 0.9 percent. The China Enterprise Index underperformed, losing 1.3 percent on the day, weighed by losses in top beta plays.
Ping An Insurance slid 3.4 percent to its lowest levels since May last year. Despite reporting interim profits at the top end of expectations last week, the world's second-largest insurer by market value has suffered since a block sale involving 3.8 percent of H-share listing was executed at Tuesday's close. Ping An ranks among the biggest beta plays on the benchmark, along with Citic Pacific, China Coal and Aluminium Corp of China (Chalco) , which were all down between 1.2 and 1.9 percent.
Cutting losses on the day was Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) , the top boost to the Hang Seng, gaining 1.4 percent after reporting a record first-half profit on better pricing power for loans. Market players remain concerned about the sustainability of such outperformance even as the ICBC's president shrugged off concerns that the massive lending to local government financing vehicles in 2008 and 2009 could turn sour.
Coal names led the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.1 percent on Friday to 2,612.2 points with China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd and Yangquan Coal were among the top drags, losing 0.5 and 1.7 percent respectively. Shaanxi Coal Industry announced plans for a major initial public offering in Shanghai, driving coal stocks lower, offsetting improving sentiment after gains earlier in the week, traders said.
But the Shanghai benchmark was up 3.1 percent on the week, snapping a five-week losing streak on optimism that the government may slow down tightening steps in place since last October due to the unstable global economic situation. PetroChina Co Ltd, the world's second-most valuable oil and gas producer after Exxon Mobil, was the biggest drag in Shanghai, shedding almost 0.6 percent in Shanghai and 3.6 percent in Hong Kong.