Hong Kong stocks climb to 1-year closing high on upbeat China data

Hong Kong stocks closed higher on Monday at a one-year high, as investors looked past latest Sino-U.S. tensions and cheered data pointing to China's solid economic recovery in 2020.

** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 1.01% at 28,862.77, its highest close since Jan. 17, 2020. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 1.25% to 11,462.52. ** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 1.3%, while the IT sector climbed 2.95%, the financial sector ended 0.06% lower and the property sector rose 0.54%.

** The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, which rose 7.45%, while the biggest loser was HSBC Holdings PLC, which fell 2.1%. ** China's economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-stricken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic rages unabated.

** The market reaction was largely muted to headlines on Sino-U.S. tensions. ** U.S. officials who have engaged in "nasty" behaviour over Chinese-claimed Taiwan will face sanctions, China's Foreign Ministry said, after Washington lifted curbs on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese officials.

** The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it was revoking certain licences to sell to the Chinese company and intended to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.67%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.97%.

** The yuan was quoted at 6.4918 per U.S. dollar at 0819 GMT, 0.16% weaker than the previous close of 6.4817. ** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 35.69% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)