HK stocks closed little changed on Friday morning session despite a 174-point rally of the Dow overnight after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday the Trump administration plans to release a "major tax reform" plan "very soon."
The benchmark index opened up 86 points at 24,143. Buying of Tencent (00700) and AAC Technologies (02018) brought the stocks to record highs, and pushed the index briefly up by 134 points to an intra-day high of 24,190. It then pared its gains towards midday as profit taking kicked in.
The Hang Seng Index ended the morning up 18 points or 0.1% to 24,075. The H-share index rose 5 points or 0.1% to 10,061. Half-day turnover decreased slightly to HK$31.3 billion from HK$32.6 billion on Thursday.
Tencent jumped 1.3% to HK$239.6. Forgame (00484), which soared 30% over the past two days, added 2% to HK$10.28 after hitting an high of HK$11.8 earlier.
AAC Technologies gained 3.4% to HK$105.8. Sunny Optical (02382) climbed 2.3% to HK$60.9. ASM Pacific (00522) surged 6.7% to HK$113.9.
i-CABLE Communications (01097) saw tumultuous moves after the company announced rights issue and introduction of new shareholder. It had dived 24.6% at one stage and plunged to an intra-day low of HK$0.46 before ending the midday at HK$0.53, down 13%. Wharf (00004) and Wheelock (00020) edged down 0.9% and 0.2% to HK$66.3 and HK$62.15.