HK Shares Make Late Climb On Tech Rebound

Local shares staged a late rally to book healthy gains on Wednesday, while regional shares remained weighed down by US inflation concerns and lofty tech valuations.

The Hang Seng Index started the day higher but flipped between gains and losses throughout the morning session.

But it clawed back from negative territory in the afternoon, with buying gaining steam before the close.

The benchmark ended 217 points, or 0.8 percent, higher at 28,231, on turnover of HK$160.9 billion.

Xiaomi was the biggest blue-chip gainer, surging 6.1 percent with the company poised to be removed from a US blacklist.

Alibaba also gained more than 6 percent, a day ahead of its results announcement. Meituan rebounded 2.5 percent, and heavyweight Tencent put on 2.4 percent.

The Hang Seng Tech Index overall advanced 2.8 percent.

Markets across the border also saw gains.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.4 percent. The Shenzhen Composite added 0.9 percent.

But around the region, Taiwan plunged as much as 8 percent before closing down 4.1 percent, as the emergence of new coronavirus clusters sparked fears that the island would raise its alert level and bring in fresh Covid restrictions.

Tokyo’s Nikkei tumbled 1.6 percent, Seoul's Kospi fell 1.5 percent, Australia skidded 0.7 percent and Singapore was down about 0.8 percent.