Mainland Developers Lead HSI Higher

Hong Kong blue chips logged modest gains at the end of Wednesday's session and markets in the region headed in different directions with investors weighing the spread of the Delta variant and expectations of how long the US Federal Reserve's supportive monetary policy will stay.

The Hang Seng Index opened down more than 100 points before reversing course to gain as many as 216 points.

But the benchmark later gave up some of its gains to close up 54 points, or 0.2 percent at 26,660, on turnover of HK$153.5 billion.

The gains were led by mainland real estate firms but were partly offset by underperforming tech shares.

China Overseas Land and Investment soared 8.9 percent to become the biggest blue-chip winner.

China Resources Land and Longfor Group each surged about 7 percent. Country Garden Services rallied 4.1 percent.

China Evergrande jumped 8 percent after the cash-strapped developer confirmed reports that it was in talks to sell some of its electric vehicle and property management businsses.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing edged up 0.4 percent after the bourse operator announced record interim profit and revenue.

Most tech plays struggled. Xiaomi lost 2.2 percent, Tencent shed 0.5 percent, and Alibaba and Meituan gave up 0.8 percent each.

Cathay Pacific shares jumped 3.6 percent after the airline reported that its interim losses narrowed.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index inched up 0.1 percent, the blue-chip CSI300 index dropped 0.6 percent and the Shenzhen Composite added 0.1 percent.

Shares in Taiwan trimmed 0.6 percent.

Japan's Nikkei gained 0.7 percent and Australia was 0.3 percent firmer. But the Kospi in South Korea fell 0.7 percent and Singapore retreated 0.9 percent.