HSI Ends Higher On Cue From Wall Street

Local and most regional shares logged modest gains on Friday as bond yields eased and investors looked past US inflation data, but mainland markets went south.

After the S&P 500 rallied to another all-time high, the Hang Seng Index took the lead from Wall Street and opened 126 points higher, jumping as many as 226 points. But it later returned some of those gains to close up 103 points or 0.4 percent, at 28,842, on turnover of HK$130.9 billion.

But for the week, the Hong Kong benchmark slipped 0.3 percent.

Friday's top blue-chip gainer, Xinyi Solar, rose for a third consecutive day, surging 6.8 percent.

Oil companies rose as prices for the commodity touched two-year highs. PetroChina jumped 3.8 percent. Sinopec put on 2.2 percent. CNOOC was 1.3 percent higher.

Tech shares headed in different directions. Meituan soared 3.1 percent. Xiaomi was flat. But Alibaba and Tencent were down.

The worst performer on the benchmark was Sino Biopharmaceutical, which tumbled two percent.

JD Logistics gave up early gains to dip 2.6 percent, despite being added into southbound Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading.

Markets across the border were weighed by liquor and financial shares. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.6 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index declined 0.9 percent. The Shenzhen Composite was 0.6 percent weaker.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei in Tokyo finished marginally lower in cautious trade. Seoul's Kospi added 0.8 percent. Australia edged up 0.1 percent. Singapore was slightly lower.