10 September 2002, 09:01  Hong Kong shares close morning slightly higher after Wall St gains

/www.forexdirectory.net/HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Share prices closed the morning slightly higher in tandem with the rise on Wall Street overnight but the market lacked a clear direction in the run-up to the Sept 11 anniversary as well as uncertainty over whether the US would lead a strike against Iraq, dealers said. Property stocks rebounded technically ahead of the land auction, they said, noting that the two sites up for sale are too small to give a meaningful indication about the state of the property market. The Hang Seng index closed up 72.23 points or 0.74 pct at 9,795.90, off a high of 9,846.69 and a low of 9,761.10, on turnover of 2.451 bln hkd. The Hang Seng September contract was at 9,805 points. The China Enterprises index was up 33.31 points at 1,968.61, while the CAC index was up 6.61 points at 1,084.67. The GEM index was up 1.15 points at 134.00 on turnover of 39.661 mln hkd. The Tracker Fund was up 0.10 at 10.00 hkd. Peter Lau, associate director of OCBC Securities, said trading was directionless, with the modest gains driven solely by the firmer US equities overnight. He said the underlying sentiment remained cautious in the run-up to the first anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks and increasing geopolitical tension in the Middle East. "Mounting political tensions (over a possible strike on) Iraq and the upcoming fund raising activities from Standard Chartered Bank and China Telecom also added to the market caution," he said. Property stocks rebounded technically ahead of the land auction in the afternoon, Lau said, noting that most homebuyers have remained reluctant to take up mortgages. Among the major property stocks, Cheung Kong was up 0.25 hkd at 55.50, Sun Hung Kai Properties up 0.45 at 50.25, while Henderson Land added 0.15 to 25.65. Within the telecoms sector, China Mobile was flat at 20.35, China Unicom gained 0.10 to 5.65 and PCCW was up 0.01 at 1.26. In the banking sector, HSBC was up 0.75 at 86.00, while Hang Seng Bank added 0.50 to 83.25 and BOC Hong Kong was flat at 8.30. In the H-share sector, Chalco was unchanged at 1.04, China Southern Airlines was up 0.025 at 2.075 and China Eastern Airlines unchanged at 1.00. Among red chips, Legend was up 0.05 at 2.95, while Stone Electronic was up 0.005 at 0.46 and Shanghai Industrial up 0.40 at 11.60. On the GEM board, tom.com was up 0.10 at 2.35 after it signed a letter of intent to set up a sino-foreign publishing joint venture with SDX Joint Publishing Co, in which it will take a 49 pct stake. CK Life Sciences added 0.01 to 1.75 and hongkong.com was down 0.001 at 0.186.

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