Hong Kong Stocks Rebound As Oil Shares Gain

Hong Kong stocks rebounded Tuesday morning following three straight day of losses, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.4%, and the mainland-China-tracking Hang Seng China Enterprises Index also rising 0.3%. Energy shares gained across the board after China's three largest state-owned oil companies replaced their chairmen the previous day, a move seen as paving the way for China's central government to accelerate its state-owned enterprise (SOE) restructuring and reform in the sector. Among the top three energy names, PetroChina Co. advanced 1.2%; China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., better known as Sinopec, added 0.7%; and Cnooc Ltd. traded 0.6% higher. Other energy-sector majors also rose, with China Oilfield Services Ltd. cracking 4.1% higher, Kunlun Energy Co. improving by 1.2%, Sino Oil & Gas Holdings tacking on 0.5%, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. edging up 0.2%. In Shanghai, the A-shares of the oil companies also posted substantial gains, as Sinopec Oilfield Service Corp. surged 6.4%, Sinopec rallied 3.1%, and PetroChina climbed 2%. Meanwhile, Chinese brokerage Haitong Securities Co. moved 1.2% higher after a Financial Times report said the company planned to recruit hundreds of bankers in Europe and the Americas to expand the operations of Banco Espirito Santo de Investmento, a Portuguese invesetment bank they acquired last year. Other Chinese brokers were mixed, as Citic Securities Co. advanced 1.2%, and China Everbright Ltd. rose 0.2%, while Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. declined 3.9%, and China Galaxy Securities Co. lost 1.6%. Among other market movers, electric-car maker BYD Co. nosed 0.8% higher after industry data showed the company led China's alternative-energy auto market by selling 7,418 such vehicles in the first quarter, accounting for nearly 40% of the entire market. Other auto makers mostly fell, with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. down 0.8%, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. off 0.7%, and Great Wall Motor Co. lower by 0.5%. On the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.3%.