Hong Kong stocks end higher on Buffett's boost

Hong Kong stocks rose 89.14 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 18,961.99 on Wednesday, on news that U.S. tycoon Warren Buffett was investing five billion dollars in beleaguered U.S. bank Goldman Sachs.

The Hang Seng benchmark index opened the morning session at 18,954.32 points, or 0.43 percent higher, and climbed to the day's high of 19,291.02 before it slid on rumors about Bank of East Asia's stability that was dismissed by both the bank and Hong Kong's financial regulators.

Bank of East Asia tightened its loss to 6.85 percent after a 11.3-percent slump in the afternoon on the strong statement by its management that the malicious rumors were not founded on facts and the bank had reported police and notify regulators in connection to the SMS fabrication.

The rumor on the bank's stability was also rejected as unfounded by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and John Tsang, financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Total market turnover fell to 59.01 billion HK dollars from Tuesday's 64.37 billion HK dollars (8.29 billion U.S. dollars

Analysts said that the market remained jittery after U.S. lawmakers Tuesday refused to pass the government rescue plan unless amendments were made.

They said Buffett's move will calm markets only briefly, as investor bearishness could return to the fore in the near term.

On local bank stocks side, heavyweight HSBC Holdings was up 0.32 percent, while Hang Seng Bank remained unchanged. BOC HK was down 0.95 percent, but StanChart was up 1.25 percent.

The mainland bank stocks close mixed. CB and Bank of China slid0.95 percent and 0.63 percent while ICBC lifted 0.86 percent. Bankcomm and CITIC Bank climbed 0.27 percent and 0.83 percent. CM Bank lost 3.81 percent.

Property stock Cheung Kong trimmed 1.05 percent, and SHK PPT dipped 0.22 percent despite the news that its substantial shareholder the Kwok family further raised holding by 650,000 shares.

Mainland's telecom stocks moved individually. China Mobile was up 1.99 percent and China Telecom up 1.21 percent. But China Unicom was down 1.2 percent and Netcom down 0.12 percent, With international oil futures easing, CNOOC, the largest offshore oil producer in the mainland, was up 0.42 percent, and PetroChina, thelargest oil firm in the mainland, was up 2.52 percent. Sinopec Corp, the largest oil refiner in the mainland, was up 2.78 percent.

Source: Xinhua