Local Shares End With Gains As Tencent Rebounds

The Hang Seng Index returned to positive territory on Wednesday, tracking the movement of tech heavyweights, while markets in the region generally closed higher as well on the lead of Wall Street.

The local benchmark started down 32 points, but soon reversed course, gaining as many as 456 points.

But it later trimmed some of its gains to end 231 points, or 0.9 percent, higher at 26,426.

Market turnover was HK$168.5 billion.

The day's blue-chip winner, Sunny Optical, surged almost 10 percent, after a report said the smartphone component maker has been tapped to help supply camera lenses for Apple's new iPhone.

Apple supplier AAC Technologies rallied 6.6 percent.

Sports-related stocks were buoyant after Beijing announced a mass fitness campaign. Shenzhou International soared 5.8 percent and Anta Sports rose 4.7 percent.

Heavyweight Tencent reversed course to add 2.4 percent, after mainland state media toned down their criticisms of the video gaming industry.

Other tech plays also advanced. Meituan put on just under 1 percent. Xiaomi jumped 3.7 percent after the company announced that it will unveil a new smartphone next week.

But Alibaba slipped 0.6 percent. A number of banks cut their target prices for the stock after the e-commerce giant reported first-quarter revenue that missed forecasts.

Macau gaming shares sank, even though authorities there spared casinos from Covid closures after four people were confirmed with the Delta variant. Galaxy Entertainment dived 6.5 percent to become the worst performer on the benchmark. Sands China retreated 2.7 percent.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index and the blue-chip CSI300 index each climbed 0.9 percent. The Shenzhen Composite gained 1.7 percent.

Taiwan stocks added 0.4 percent.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi rallied 1.3 percent, Australia edged up 0.4 percent and Singapore jumped 1.2 percent. But Tokyo's Nikkei shed 0.2 percent.