HK stocks climb after Wall Street rebound

HONG KONG — Hong Kong stocks rose modestly Wednesday after Wall Street's overnight gain as telecoms and financials offset weakness among property developers.

The blue chip Hang Seng index gained 182.81 points, or 1.4 percent, to close at 13,588.66. The benchmark index dropped 5 percent on Tuesday.

Analysts said the rebound would be short-term and limited as investors did not expect governments to announce more bailout or stimulus packages in the near term.

"I don't think there would be any positive news to boost the market in the next couple of weeks," said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities. "Investors are still not very interested in getting back into the market," he said.

The local market rallied last week after the Chinese government slashed a key interest rate by the largest amount in 11 years to spur economic growth and the U.S. government announced a bailout of Citigroup.

Telecoms led Wednesday's trading on speculation China may soon issue long-awaited licenses for third generation mobile services. China Telecom jumped 7.3 percent to 2.96 Hong Kong dollars and China Unicom rose 5 percent to HK$8.96. Index heavyweight China Mobile added 2.5 percent to HK$72.05.

Financial stocks also gained with banking giant HSBC adding 1.7 percent to HK$80.35. China's largest lender ICBC rose 2.9 percent higher to HK$3.91 and insurer China Life was up 2.8 percent at HK$20.15.

Property developers took a beating after more local banks decided to raise mortgage rates. Sun Hung Kai Properties shed 6 percent to HK$55.25, Sino Land lost 3.8 percent to HK$5.34 and Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. was off 2.7 percent to HK$67.80

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Stock Exchange of Hong Kong: http://www.hkex.com.hk

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