Afternoon Rally Drives Local Shares To Positive End

The Hong Kong market flipped between gains and losses during the morning but found direction later in the day to finish in positive territory, as its peers in the region climbed higher after China reported blockbuster economic growth for the first quarter.

The Hang Seng Index began the day 34 points higher but soon slipped into the red and struggled to find direction. But it found support towards lunchtime and in the end closed up 176 points or 0.6 percent, at 28,969, on turnover of HK$143.2 billion.

For the week, the local benchmark rose one percent.

The day's blue-chip winner was Geely, which soared 7.1 percent. The mainland automaker has launched a high-end electric vehicle brand named Zeekr to take on the likes of Tesla and Nio to get a share of China's growing premium EV market.

CNOOC surged more than three percent, Sinopec put on 1.7 percent and PetroChina added 0.7 percent, after oil prices rose for a fifth session.

Tech shares rebounded. Tencent, Xiaomi and Meituan each jumped nearly two percent.

Mainland telco firms rallied as well. China Mobile gained three percent, while China Unicom was up 2.3 percent.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.8 percent. The blue-chip CSI300 index edged up 0.4 percent. And the Shenzhen Composite was 0.6 percent higher.

Around the region, Japan's Nikkei and the Kospi in South Korea each inched up 0.1 percent. Taiwan added 0.5 percent to reach another record high. Singapore gained about 0.5 percent. Australia was marginally higher.