Hong Kong Stocks Seesaw Before New Year's Day Break

Hong Kong stocks swung between small gains and losses Tuesday morning in a holiday-shortened trading session ahead of the New Year's Day break. The Hang Seng Index inched up 0.1% after the final read of HSBC's Chinese manufacturing activity index for December was revised slightly higher to 49.6 from the initial "flash" reading of 49.5. Among the top movers, Chinese state-owned railway giants China CNR Corp. and CSR Corp. soared 43.6% and 31.3%, respectively, after the companies announced a merger plan pushed by the central government. Online-game developer Forgame Holdings Ltd. bounced back 1.1% after recent heavy losses, as the company said two of its five founding shareholders and other strategic investors agreed to purchase a combined 22.7% stake from two other cofounders. Other tech rivals mostly rose as well, with domestic peers Boyaa Interactive International Ltd. and NetDragon Websoft Inc. added 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively. Software developer Kingsoft Corp. advanced 1.8%, and rival Kingdee International Software Group moved higher by 1.3%. Chinese online major Tencent Holdings Ltd. improved by 0.4%. Over on the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index crept higher by 0.1% on the last trading day of the year. The index has surged 50% since the beginning of 2014, looking set to end the year as the world's top-performing major equity market.