HK Cargo Volume Falls 22%

123jump.com Staff
10 Mar, 2009
New York City

Producer price index in China declined 4.5% in February and urban home prices fell 1.2% in the month. Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited said air cargo volume fell 22% in February and cumulative tonnage in the first two months of the year dipped 27%.

[R]6:00AM New York, 6:00PM Hong Kong - Producer price index in China declined 4.5% in February and urban home prices fall 1.2% in February.[/R]

Hong Kong stock indexes increased buoyed by gains in lenders HSBC. A government report also indicated that produce prices fell in February.

Market Sentiment

In Hong Kong trading Hang Seng Index increased 3.1% or 349.44 to 11,694.05, and the China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong listed mainland shares, or H shares, advanced 2.3% or 155.09 to 6,880.67. In Shanghai trading CSI 300 Index soared 1.7% or 38.26 to 2,240.78.

PPI Drops 4.5% in February

China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported today that the country’s producer price index, which gauges inflation at the wholesale level, fell 4.5% in February from the same period a year ago.

Urban Home Prices Fall 1.2%

Xinhua News Agency reported today that prices of new and existing home in 70 large and medium sized Chinese companies dropped 1.2% in February, falling for the third successive month. The drop was 0.3 percentage points lower than a month ago.

Prices of newly built homes in the southern cities of Shenzhen fell 16.3% and Guangzhou dropped 8.9%.

HK Air Cargo Volume Drops 22%

Separately, the online edition of the news agency noted that Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited said air cargo volume fell 22% to 133,624 tons in February.

Cumulative tonnage in the first two months of the year dipped 26.9% to 276,378 tons while import volume declined 20% to 38,587 tons.

Also aggregate import volume in the first two months of 2009 fell 27.9% to 75,218 tons. In addition, export volume for February slipped 25.3% to 64,546 tons.

Gainers & Losers

Hong Kong stocks rose on the back of a rebound in HSBC as investors targeted the stock after yesterday’s 24% plunge.

HSBC increased 13.9% to HK$37.60. However the market expects further volatility ahead of its record rights issue.

Financial stocks advanced. Bank of East Asia edged up 7.1%, BOC Hong Kong increased 2.4 % and Hang Seng Bank rose 2%.

Sinotrans Shipping soared 22.3% to HK$2.03 after the company profit advanced 146% to $347.13 million.

Energy stocks gained after crude oil prices climbed 3.4% to 47.10 per barrel. CNOOC increased 7.4% to HK$6.69, PetroChina gained 3.9% to HK$5.30 and Sinopec Corp jumped 4.9%.

Gold stocks fell after gold prices shed 2.6% to $918 per ounce. Real Gold Mining dipped 6.1% to HK$4.92 and Zhaojin Mining dropped 3.2% to HK$8.35.