HK Shares Bullish To Start Year Of The Ox

Hong Kong stocks marked the first trading day of the Year of the Ox with a rally, and regional shares closed higher as well on growing optimism over the global economic recovery under a low interest rate environment.

The Hang Sang Index jumped more than 500 points at open, and kept up the momentum throughout the day to finish up 573 points, 1.9 percent, at 30,746.

Turnover reached a robust HK$219.8 billion.

The top blue-chip gainer, PetroChina, surged 13.7 percent as oil prices climbed. CNOOC soared 9.5 percent and Sinopec advanced 8.1 percent.

HSBC rallied 7.7 percent on hopes that the British bank could resume paying dividends.

AAC Technologies added 6.5 percent after the smartphone equipment maker announced that the local bourse had approved its proposal to spin off its optics business.

Cinema stocks put on a show as an online ticketing platform reported that box offices across the border posted record weeklong revenue at the start of the Chinese New Year. Shares of IMAX China spiked as much as 90 percent before giving back some of the gains to close up 30 percent. Alibaba Pictures Group soared more than 35 percent.

But tech heavyweights Tencent and Meituan bucked the trend and were each down more than 1 percent.

Markets across the border will remain close until Thursday.

The Nikkei in Japan added 1.3 percent to its highest close in 30 years after heavyweight Softbank surpassed its previous peak reached during the dot-com era. The ASX in Australia put on 0.7 percent to end above 6,900 for the first time in a year, driven by strong results by mining giant BHP. Seoul’s Kospi edged up 0.5 percent. Singapore was up 0.3 percent.