Hong Kong stocks rose 0.3 percent on Wednesday, as bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd shot up amid strong trading volumes and advancing crude prices lifted oil issues. The debut by China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group Co Ltd.
The country's largest wind-power transmission equipment maker, trumped expectations by more than doubling as the day's most traded stock and Hong Kong's best-performing IPO so far this year.
"Renewable energy is hot, and you don't have anything like China High Speed in Hong Kong," said Steve Cheng, associate director at Shenyin Wanguo. Property firm Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd was another outperformer, racing up to all-time highs amid buyout talks.
Steep drops in the yuan-denominated A-share mainland stock market unsettled investors in the afternoon, briefly sending the benchmark Hang Seng Index into negative territory. The Hang Seng topped at 22,307.60 for the day, marking a second straight intraday record, and settled up 67.41 points at 22,218.55, its highest-ever finish.
The China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed shares in mainland companies struck an intraday high at 12,577.45 before ending at a record close of 12,474.02 for a gain of 0.6 percent, or 67.63 points. Bullish sentiment and strong fund inflows were likely to carry the market higher in the near-term, said Matt McKeith, head of equity dealing at First State Investments.
"There's a lot of leverage and hot money out there going into Hong Kong and China, including institutional money trying to beat QDII to the market," he said, referring to the influx of funds from mainland China expected under the country's widening Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor programme that lets domestic investors plough money into overseas securities.
Mainboard turnover was the seventh highest ever at HK$83.4 billion (US $10.7 billion), beating Tuesday's HK$81.7 billion. China High Speed traded as high as HK$14.44, or more than double its HK$7.08 offer price. The company, which raised US $272 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering, settled at HK$14, nearly twice its IPO price.
Hong Kong Exchanges, a barometer of market sentiment and the biggest boost to the blue chips, rose for a fifth straight session following recent broker upgrades, closing up 5.7 percent at HK$125.50 in heavy trade. Chinese Estates eased from a record HK$16 to close nearly 19 percent higher at HK$14.60. Among oil plays, Sinopec Corp gained 1.3 percent to HK$9.1 and PetroChina Co Ltd tapped a new high before ending up 0.8 percent at HK$12.14.
Profit-taking drove China Shenhua Energy down 1.7 percent to HK$28.60, a day after its shares surged on news of its planned Shanghai share sale. Mainland lenders also gained, but China Construction Bank was the top performer, hitting an all-time high before settling up 2.6 percent at HK$5.61.