SINGAPORE: Chinese stocks soared on Friday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng within reach of its best week in a decade, while the yuan jumped on reports of early progress in US checks on Chinese company audits and hopes for COVID restrictions to be relaxed.

Bloomberg News reported initial US inspections of Chinese company audits finished ahead of time, citing people familiar with the situation, raising hopes that they were satisfied.

The Hang Seng surged either side of the midday break and was last up 7.4%, headed for an 11% weekly gain. Tech giants with US listings led the charge, driving the Hang Seng Tech index up 11%.

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Online giants JD.com and Alibaba rose more than 15%. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite rose 2.7% and is heading for a 5.6% weekly gain.

The blue-chip CSI300 was up 3.7% on Friday and 6.8% on the week.

The yuan rose about 0.9% to 7.2410 per dollar, despite broad dollar gains elsewhere.