Hong Kong, Shanghai Stocks Add To Winning Streak

After sharp gains the previous day, Hong Kong and Shanghai markets extended their advance early Friday, with the Hang Seng Index up 1.2%, and the Shanghai Composite climbing 2.1%, after the two benchmarks rose 1.7% and 4.3%, respectively, on Thursday. In Hong Kong, the heavily weighted real-estate and banking sectors enjoyed a broad advance, with China Vanke Co. up 1.3%, Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. up 2.2%, China Construction Bank Corp. up 3.5%, and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. up 3.2%, though HSBC Holdings PLC edged just 0.3% higher after a 0.8% loss overnight for its London-listed shares. Stock in Haitong Securities Co. soared more than 20% as they resumed trading after news the company was in talks with Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo to buy its investment-banking unit. In other deal news, shares of Citic Ltd. added 5% after a Wall Street Journal report that Japan's Itochu Corp. and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group were looking to buy a stake in the Chinese conglomerate. Energy shares diverged, meanwhile, with PetroChina Co. flat in Hong Kong but up 4.9% in Shanghai, while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, lost 0.6% in Hong Kong but rose 0.8% in Shanghai, with Caixin reporting that the head of Sinopec's oil-field-services unit was under investigation. Among other Hong Kong movers, Great Wall Motor Co. rallied 4.1% after the release of its November sales and output numbers, while rival Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. was up 2.6%, and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. added 2.8%.