The Hong Kong stock market has moved higher now in two straight sessions, gathering almost 250 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index closed just below the 23,355-point plateau, and now analysts are predicting further strength at the opening of trade on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with positive economic news from Europe and Asia offset by soft data from the United States. The Asian markets already had a chance to react to much better than expected Chinese trade data. And in Europe, the European Central Bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged at a record low. But the United States saw an increase in initial jobless claims. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Hang Seng finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the property stocks and resource plays.
For the day, the index climbed 135.84 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 23,354.31 after trading between 23,165.64 and 23,477.89 on volume of 92.85 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Among the actives, Chalco spiked 6.5 percent, while China Merchants climbed 1.9 percent, Cosco Pacific added 0.7 percent, New World Development soared 5.4 percent, Cheung Kong gained 1.9 percent, Sun Hung Kai Properties collected 0.8 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 1.7 percent and Ping An shed 1.4 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks fluctuated on Thursday but largely maintained a positive bias before ending notably higher. With the gains over the past two days, the major averages have more than offset the weakness seen earlier this week. The S&P 500 ended the day at a new five-year closing high.
The strength was partly due to some upbeat Chinese trade data, as the nation’s trade surplus swelled to $31.6 billion in December from $19.6 billion in November. Chinese exports rose 14.1 percent on year, the fastest rate of growth in seven months. Chinese imports also saw 6 percent annual growth.
Traders also reacted positively to news out of Europe, where the European Central Bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged at a record low. ECB President Mario Draghi said economic weakness in the euro area is expected to extend into the new year but said economic activity should gradually recover later in 2013.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing that initial jobless claims rose to 371,000 in the week ended January 5 from the previous week’s revised figure of 367,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 362,000 from the 372,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The major U.S. averages were higher on Thursday as the Dow rose 80.71 points or 0.6 percent to finish at 13,471.22, while the NASDAQ climbed 15.95 points or 0.5 percent to end at 3,121.76 and the S&P 500 advanced 11.10 points or 0.8 percent to close at 1,472.12.
In economic news, China will on Friday release December figures for consumer and producer prices. In November, CPI was up 2.0 percent on year, while PPI dipped an annual 2.2 percent.
Also, China posted a merchandise trade surplus of $31.6 billion in December, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That blew away forecasts for a surplus of $20.0 billion, and it was up from the $19.63 billion surplus in November.
Exports surged an annual 14.1 percent – shattering expectations for an increase of 5.0 percent after rising 2.9 percent in the previous month. Imports were up 6.0 percent on year versus forecasts for an increase of 3.5 percent following the flat reading a month earlier.
by RTT Staff Writer
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