Hong Kong shares ended higher on Monday, as gains in the European markets lifted sentiment and reversed earlier losses caused by declines in stock markets of the Chinese Mainland and the Wall Street amid worries over a potential global economic recession.
Hong Kong stocks gained 86.95 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 19,486.87 on Monday. The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 19,047.64 and 19,666.84. Turnover totaled 88.20 billion HK dollars (about 11.31 billion U.S. dollars).
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 31.58 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 10,245.80.
Three sub-indices gained ground, with the Utility sub-index rising the most by 1.52 percent, followed by the Finance 0.49 percent, and the Commerce and Industry 0.41 percent. The Properties sub-index fell 0.21 percent.
Fashion chain Esprit was the best-performing blue chip, rising 3.4 percent to 21.20 HK dollars on bargain-hunting and a Bloomberg news reported on Friday citing three unnamed sources as saying the company is considering selling off its U.S. and Canadian operations.
Barclays Capital said Esprit's U.S. operations loses about 50 million U.S. a year and "any move that plugs that drain will lead to about 10 percent increase in pretax earnings."
China Mobile was up 2.9 percent at 78.00 HK dollars on bargain hunting.
On the other hand, gaming, retail and cement stocks, which have outperformed other sectors this year, fell on heavy profit-taking pressure.
MGM China was down 8.1 percent at 12.96 HK dollars, Sands China dropped 4.7 percent at 20.45 HK dollars, China National Building Material fell 4.3 percent to 11.50 HK dollars, jewellery chain Chow Sang Sang was down 9.9 percent at 26.00 HK dollars.
China Resources Land was down 7.4 percent at 11.84 HK dollars, the worst-performing blue-chip after reporting weaker-than- expected results and on dilution concerns after announcing a share issue to its parent group.
The developer said on Friday its first-half net profit rose only 4 percent even as it booked strong rental income and revaluation gains, because few of its bookable property projects for the year were delivered during the period.
China Resources Power fell 5.8 percent to 12.90 HK dollars after it reported on Monday a marginal 1 percent increase in its first-half net profit, as higher fuel costs eroded the impact of an increase in power output.
Among other blue chips, HKEX, the city's sole bourse operator, closed 1.8 percent higher to 145.00 HK dollars. Hang Seng Bank gained 1.5 percent to 109.70 HK dollars.
