Healthcare, HKEx Drive Local Shares To Strong Finish

Hong Kong and regional shares rebounded on Monday, as bargain hunters jumped in following heavy losses last week.

Taking its cue from Wall Street, the Hang Seng Index started 319 points higher. It was buoyant for the remainder of the day, surging more than 600 points at one stage before returning some of the gains to close up 259, or just over one percent, at 25,109.

Market turnover was HK$169.8 billion.

Healthcare firms rallied to lead top performing stocks on the benchmark. The day's biggest blue-chip winner, Wuxi Biologics, soared 7.3 percent, after the company reported a 1.5-fold surge in interim net profit.

Alibaba Health Information Technology jumped 6.1 percent.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing advanced 5.7 percent, after regulators approved its plan to launch its first A-share futures product with index provider MSCI.

Li Ning, Xinyi Glass Holdings and China Merchants Bank each rallied between 4.4 and 7.4 percent, after it was announced that these companies will be added into the local benchmark next month.

Bank of Communications, which will lose its blue-chip status, slid 3.7 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index and the blue-chip CSI300 index each rose more than one percent, after the mainland recorded a day without any locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time since July. The Shenzhen Composite jumped 2.4 percent.

Taiwan shares surged 2.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.5 percent. The Kospi in Seoul added almost one percent. Australia edged up 0.4 percent. But Singapore declined 0.5 percent.