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HK surges 650 points
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July 2, 1999: 4:53 a.m. ET
Hang Seng storms almost 4.8% higher; Nikkei makes temporary break through 18,000 mark
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Hong Kong stocks stormed 650 points Friday as investors returned to the market after missing out on the previous day's rally due to a public holiday. Tokyo broke through the psychological 18,000 barrier before falling back to end just over 70 points higher.
The Nikkei 225 ended Friday up 71.72 points, or 0.4 percent, at 17,932.47, after hitting an intra-day high of 18,066.28 in morning trade. Investors responded to a solid session on Wall Street Thursday, which saw the Nasdaq composite close at a record of 2,706.20. The S&P 500 index also set a record to end at 1,380.78.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 95.62 to 11,066.42, closing above 11,000 for the first time since mid-May.
Japanese investors drew more confidence from the decision by the Federal Reserve to adopt a neutral position on future U.S. interest rate policy Wednesday after it raised interest rates by an anticipated quarter of a percentage point.
But Tokyo blue chips trimmed gains in the afternoon as the market looked toward Monday's release of the Tankan, the key quarterly business confidence survey. The Nikkei finished 2.8 percent higher on the week.
"The market has already factored in a certain degree of optimism about economic improvement and was getting top-heavy above 18,000," said Masatoshi Kikuchi, senior strategist at Daiwa Institute of Research.
Heavy industrial stocks enjoyed a particularly strong session, with steel and chemical companies performing well. Nippon Steel Corp. surged over 5.5 percent to end at 306 yen, and Kawasaki Steel soared almost 6.2 percent to 240 yen. Mitsubishi Chemicals rose over 4.3 percent to end at 436 yen, while Takeda Chemical Industries rose over 2.5 percent to 6,090 yen.
Hong Kong made up for lost time as investors belatedly celebrated the good news from the Fed, after the market was closed Thursday. The Hang Seng index sky-rocketed 4.82 percent, a massive 652.44 point gain, to close at 14,184.58.
Index heavyweight HSBC led the charge upward, as it surged HK$14 higher to close at HK$297, a rise of almost 5 percent. The strong rally left the blue-chip index up 2.9 percent over a week ago.
The other Asian markets were more subdued but still positive. Singapore blue chips traded mildly higher late in the session. The Straits Times index was up just 0.27 percent at 2,220.68.
Strong resources stocks helped the All Ordinaries index in Sydney, as it finished up 26.8 points at 3,028.9, a rise of 0.89 percent.
South Korea's Kospi was up just over 13 points at 933.42 a rise of 1.46 percent.
Earlier, Taiwan's Weighted index closed 1.24 percent higher at 8,572.09, while Philippine blue chips closed 1.39 percent higher at 2,578.72.
Kuala Lumpur's Composite index was 1.12 percent higher at 844.63 in late trade, while Bangkok's Set index surged almost 4 percent to 542.49. Jakarta's blue chips were in negative territory, however, amid concerns about further civil unrest following a violent clash between police and demonstrators. The JSX index added to its losses late on, to trade down 0.88 percent at 667.11.
-- from staff and wire reports
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