HK rises cap big weekly advance

By Hanny Wan  |   2008-7-12  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

HONG Kong's stocks rose yesterday, pushing the benchmark index to its biggest weekly advance in more than two months while China Construction Bank Corp, the nation's second- largest, led financial stocks higher after saying first-half profit may have surged by more than 50 percent.

Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, or Chalco, the nation's biggest producer of the metal, climbed to a three-week high after the country's producers agreed to cut output by as much as 10 percent.

Foxconn International Holdings Ltd jumped as investors judged excessive a slump that made the stock the index's worst performer this year.

The Hang Seng Index added 362.77, or 1.7 percent, to close at 22,184.55. The measure, which dropped as much as 0.3 percent in the morning session, has climbed 3.6 percent this week. That's the gauge's sharpest weekly advance since the week ended April 25, according to Bloomberg News.

''Earnings are still positive in terms of year-on-year growth in this region," said Mark Konyn, CEO of RCM Asia Pacific Ltd. "International investors have certainly pulled back from the markets, but our experience here in Hong Kong, also in Korea and Taiwan, is that things are holding up pretty well."