Recovery Hopes Boost HSI To Positive Finish

The Hang Seng Index rallied and regional stocks scaled new highs on Friday as investors looked past rising Covid cases and bet on the prospects of an economic recovery.

The local benchmark rose 329 points, or 1.2 percent, to finish at 27,878.

Turnover surged to HK$270.3 billion.

Mainland auto giant Geely was the day's winner on the index, soaring 19.4 percent, buoyed by a report that its factories would be used to make smart electric vehicles under a new company under the search engine giant Baidu.

Other automakers also climbed. Great Wall Motor was up nearly 5 percent and BYD gained 1.8 percent.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing surged to a new all-time high of HK$464.4 before retreating. Shares still ended the day 2 percent higher at HK$452.

AIA also hit a new fresh high of HK$99.05 before finishing almost 2 percent up at HK$99.

China Mobile dived 4.2 percent, China Unicom shed 0.9 percent and China Telecom lost 3.5 percent after major index providers announced the removal of their securities.

For the whole week, the Hang Seng Index put on 2.4 percent.

MSCI’s index on Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan hit a record high.

Japan’s Nikkei surged 2.4 percent to a 30-year peak.

In Seoul, heavyweight Samsung jumped on its earnings guidance, pushing the Kospi past 3,100. The South Korean benchmark finished almost 4 percent higher after jumping the most in nearly seven months.

In Taiwan, investors cheered chipmaker TSMC’s record quarterly revenue, sending the Taiex 1.6 percent higher to another record close.

Singapore advanced 2.8 percent, while Australia put on 0.7 percent.

But shares in the mainland failed to ride on the positive sentiment in the region, following news that the Trump administration was considering expanding an executive order banning US investment in blacklisted Chinese companies.

The Shanghai Composite Index trimmed 0.2 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index lost a third of one percent. The Shenzhen Composite index shed 0.3 percent.