Hong Kong shares close higher on Wall Street gains; trade volatile

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Share prices closed moderately higher on the back of last night's gains in U.S. stockmarkets, though profit-taking ahead of tomorrow's expiry of the Hang Seng March contract brought the market back from its best level of the day, dealers said.	    The Hang Seng index closed up 143.51 points at 12,851.41, off an early low of 12,779.34 and a high of 13,015.73, on turnover of 6.88 bln hkd. 	    The Hang Seng March contract last traded at 12,859 points.	    The Hang Seng China Enterprises index closed up 5.15 points at 392.72 and the CAC index down 3.40 points at 1,031.79.	    TraHK closed up 0.20 at 13.05 hkd on volume of 5.30 mln units.	    The GEM index closed down 1.27 points at 258.27 on turnover of 111.48 mln hkd.	    Simon Tam, dealing manager of Sassoon Securities, said investors remain nervous given the uncertain outlook for U.S. stocks.	    "The regional stockmarkets lacked upward momentum ... investors were fairly cautious," he said.	    "Today's volatility was intensified by tomorrow's expiry of the Hang Seng March contract ... investors will also be waiting for the U.S. GDP data on Thursday," he said.	    In the property sector, Sun Hung Kai Properties finished up 0.70 at 73.50, New World Development up 0.05 at 10.20 and Sino Land 0.05 higher at 3.475.	    Cheung Kong rose 0.75 to 79.50 on hopes that the company may make an acquisition in the near term after a proposal to increase its authorised capital by 1.0 bln shares.	    Within the financial sector, HSBC ended up 1.50 at 92.0, Bank of East Asia fell 0.10 to 17.85 and Hang Seng Bank gained 0.25 to 91.0.	    China Mobile added 1.10 to 35.10 hkd following news that the company is planning to purchase 18 mobile phone networks from its parent, dealers said.	    China Unicom closed down 0.05 at 8.55 and Hutchison Whampoa up 0.50 at 81.25. PCCW closed down 0.025 at 3.475 ahead of the release of its 2000 results.	    In a survey by AFX-ASIA, analaysts said they are expecting PCCW to report a net loss of 1.41-5.40 bln hkd.	    On the GEM board, tom.com ended down 0.02 at 1.98, Sunevision unchanged at 2.15 and hongkong.com down 0.005 at 0.31.	    For red-chips and H-shares, Shenyang Public Utility rose 0.11 to 1.46, Anhui Expressway added 0.06 to 0.90 and Jilin Chemical gained 0.03 to 0.56. 	    China Resources was unchanged at 10.60 and Shanghai Industrial rose 0.05 to 12.65.

Related stock : (NIL)