HK Market Starts Holidays On A Positive Note

Hong Kong stocks ended Monday's shortened trading day on a positive note following a bumper US jobs report, with dealers heading off on three-day break for Lunar New Year.

The Hang Seng Index added 0.2 percent, to 27,990.

The markets on the mainland have started their week-long holidays for the Lunar New Year.

Other Asian markets also rose, but the trade was thin owing to the holiday break.

Tokyo stocks closed higher, helped by a cheaper yen. The Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5 percent, at 20,883.

Peter Wilmshurst, a portfolio manager at Templeton Global Equities in Melbourne, said this year could see a recovery in equities.

"If we see some sort of inflection in economic growth stabilising, then people can have more confidence in earnings," he told Bloomberg TV.

The plunge in prices last year "leaves the valuations of many stocks around the world looking pretty interesting to us, particularly outside the US".

On currency markets the US dollar held its gains against the yen and the pound though observers pointed out that the rally in the greenback from the jobs data was limited as dealers focus on the Fed's slower pace of rate hikes. (AFP)

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