Hong Kong shares end higher as China premier talks up targeted policy support

Hong Kong shares erased early losses and ended higher on Tuesday after China's premier said the country would take targeted policy steps to support private companies.

** At the close, the Hang Seng index was 0.7 percent higher at 26,120.96 points while the China Enterprises Index was up 0.8 percent at 10,632.64 points. ** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares jumped 2.1 percent, the IT sector rose 0.09 percent and the financial sector was 0.51 percent higher while the property sector gained 1.56 percent. ** Shares rallied late in the day after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China will not resort to strong monetary stimulus, but instead it will take targeted policy steps to support private companies and smaller businesses. Li also said China will step up efforts on reducing taxes, fees and market trading costs.

** The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd, up 3.4 percent, while the biggest loser was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd, down 4.08 percent. ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.6 percent to 3,243.15 points while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2 percent to 2,659.36 points. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.44 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 1.14 percent. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.92 per U.S. dollar at 08:18 GMT, 0.09 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.9262.

** The top gainers among H-shares were CNOOC Ltd up 2.96 percent, followed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd , gaining 2.53 percent and PetroChina Co Ltd, up by 2.41 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Great Wall Motor Co Ltd, which was down 1.60 percent, Byd Co Ltd, which fell 1.1 percent and China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd, down by 0.5 percent. ** About 1.61 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 86.9 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.85 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.68 billion. ** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 19.29 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 10.07 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 3.7 percent. ** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has fallen by 2.20 percent to HK$16.82 trillion. ** The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was lower by 0.72 percent on the day at 5,322.28 points. (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Vyas Mohan)

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