Local Shares Rebound, Top 30,000

Local stocks rebounded on Thursday from heavy losses the day before, finishing above the 30,000-mark.

A day after losing more than 900 points, the Hang Seng Index opened sharply higher and climbed by 725 points at one stage.

But the rally lost steam in the afternoon, and the index finished the day 355 points or 1.2 percent higher, at 30,074.

Turnover was HK$256.8 billion.

Mainland developers led the gains on reports that authorities across the border were planning to overhaul land supply policies. China Resources Land soared 11.2 percent. China Overseas Land and Development and Country Garden each jumped more than 7 percent.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which took a hit following a government proposal to raise stock trading stamp duty by 30 percent, failed to hold on to its early gains and lost 1.8 percent at close, at HK$500.

The biggest loser on the blue-chip index was Budweiser APAC. The brewing company sank 7.4 percent after its earnings disappointed investors.

Standard Chartered retreated 2 percent after it reported profits that missed analysts' expectations.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite Index and the blue-chip CSI300 index each added 0.6 percent. But the Shenzhen Composite trimmed half a percent.

Markets elsewhere in the region took the cue from another record close on Wall Street and finished higher. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.7 percent; the Kospi in Seoul rallied 3.5 percent; Taiwan put on 1.5 percent; Australia edged up 0.8 percent; and Singapore climbed 1.7 percent.

In commodities, oil prices hovered near 13-month highs after the US Federal Reserve assured that interest rates will stay low and a storm in Texas drastically cut US crude output.