Hong Kong Stocks Rise Further On Stock Connect

Hong Kong stocks rose for a second straight day Tuesday as investors squeezed some more gains out of news that the long-awaited Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect would start next week, an announcement that boosted shares Monday. Record highs on Wall Street overnight also supported the market. The Hang Seng Index advanced 0.6%, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese companies, added 1%. Mainland banks posted significant gains, as both Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and China Citic Bank Corp. climbed 2%, Bank of China Ltd. rose 1.6%, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. moved up 1.4%, and China Merchants Bank Co. traded 1.1% higher. Chinese brokerage firms gained further, benefiting for a second day from the announcement of the Stock Connect launch. Haitong Securities Co. leapt 4.7%, China Everbright Ltd. jumped 3.3%, and China Galaxy Securities Co. advanced 1.8%. However, oil stocks pulled back, as international crude prices fell. Offshore oil and gas producer Cnooc Ltd. declined 1.5%, and state-owned energy giant PetroChina Co. fell 1.4%. Refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, dropped 0.6%, also weighed by news its Canadian subsidiary Sinopec Daylight Energy was fined 150,000 Canadian dollars ($132,000) for a pipeline leak of contaminated water in norther Alberta in 2012. Among other movers, Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd. dropped 1.7%, after reporting a 16% slide in its third-quarter profit. Over on the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index notched a solid 1% gain, also apparently linked to the coming Stock Connect launch.