Hong Kong: Shares rise on anticipation of Europe stimulus

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong shares rose a third consecutive day on Thursday, lifted by wide expectations the European Central Bank is about to roll out a stimulus programme to boost the euro zone's flagging economy.

A source told Reuters the ECB's Executive Board has proposed a quantitative easing (QE) programme that would enable the bank to buy 50 billion euros (US$57.91 billion) in bonds a month from March.

The Hang Seng index rose 0.7 per cent, to 24,522.63 points, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.2 per cent, to 12,047.27 points.

Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were Landing International Development Ltd, down 1.6 per cent at HK$0.30, Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd, down 2.5 per cent at HK$1.15 and Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, up 19.2 per cent to HK$1.55.

Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.55 billion yuan (US$88.61 million) of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.

Total trading volume of companies included in the HSI index was 1.7 billion shares.

REUTERS