HK Shares Snap Four-day Losing Streak

Most local and regional shares shrugged off a negative lead from Wall Street to end higher on Wednesday, as investors awaited the US Federal Reserve's July meeting minutes for clues on the interest rate hike timetable.

The Hang Seng Index briefly dipped into the red in the morning after starting slightly higher. But the benchmark managed to recover its losses, rising as many as 279 points before giving back some of the gains to close up 121 points, or 0.5 percent, at 25,867, snapping a four-day losing streak.

Turnover was HK$134.4 billion.

Geely Auto jumped 2.5 percent, after the carmaker announced that its interim net profit rose nearly four percent on year.

Mainland financials also fared well. Ping An Insurance advanced almost three percent. China Life Insurance added 2.2 percent.

Tencent eked out 0.3 percent of gains at close, ahead of its results release later in the day.

WH Group sank more than 11 percent to become the worst blue-chip performer. The pork producer said in an exchange filing that it noted recent price movements in its stock and dismissed allegations made by a former director as misleading and untrue.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite Index and the blue-chip CSI300 index each put on 1.1 percent. The Shenzhen Composite edged up 0.8 percent.

Taiwan was one percent firmer.

The Nikkei in Tokyo gained 0.6 percent to end four consecutive sessions of losses. Shares in Seoul and Singapore finished 0.5 percent higher. But Australia slipped 0.1 percent, weighed by BHP after the mining giant released its results and announced a merger with Woodside Petroleum.