Hong Kong shares end higher on trade deal hopes, up for 6th week

Hong Kong stocks closed higher for the sixth straight week on Friday as investors remained upbeat in the run-up to the signing of the Phase 1 trade deal between China and the United States.

** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 0.3% at 28,638.20, near its highest level since Jan. 3 hit earlier in the session. The index ticked up 0.7% from the previous week. ** The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.1% on Friday and was up by pretty much the same margin week-on-week. ** The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 1.2%, the IT sector rose 1.7%, the financial sector rose 0.2% and property shares lost 0.1%. ** The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Tencent Holdings Ltd, which gained 2.2%, while the biggest loser was China Resources Land Ltd, which fell 3.4%. ** U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced last month that the Phase 1 trade deal with China would be signed on Jan. 15, said on Thursday the agreement could be signed "shortly thereafter." ** China's Vice Premier Liu He, head of the country's negotiation team in Sino-U.S. trade talks, will sign the deal in Washington next week, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. ** Trump said on Thursday that Washington will start negotiating the Phase 2 U.S.-China trade agreement soon but that he might wait to complete any deal until after the U.S. presidential election in November. ** Some of the weekly gains were made after signs of modest improvement in the Chinese economy emerged and as Beijing rolled support measures, encouraging investors. ** About 1.45 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.69 billion. ** At close, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 26.91% over Hong Kong-listed H-shares.