HK stocks close higher on China rebound hopes

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

HONG KONG, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Hopes of an economic rebound in China drove Hong Kong stocks slightly higher for the third straight session Wednesday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed up 89.46 points, or 0.57 pct at 15,669.62 after trading between 15,213.39 and 15,669.85 during the session and spending most of the day in negative territory.

Turnover fell to 66.26 billion HK dollars (about 8.56 billion U. S. dollars) from Tuesday's 75.42 billion HK dollars (about 9.74billion U.S. dollars).

Wall Street shifted into reverse overnight after the U.S. government reported a 1.1 slump in retail sales in March, an unexpectedly poor result that rattled hopes that the worst of the recession had passed.

But signs of recovery in China's economy drove Hong Kong stocks a positive session as China's Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian said Wednesday that actual foreign direct investment in China came to 8.4 billion U.S. dollars in March.

Though the figure was down 9.5 pct from a year earlier, it was the highest monthly level since June last year.

China Mobile jumped 4.8 pct to 73.15 HK dollars, contributing 74.58 points of the HSI's rise.

Citic Pacific rose 3.2 pct to 12.78 HK dollars, extending its 28.7 pct gain over the last two sessions.

Sinopec rose 2.74 pct, or 0.16 pct to 5.99 HK dollars and China Mining moved up 2.74 pct, or 0.16 HK dollars, to 5.99.

Bank of China dropped 1.02 pct, or 0.03 to 2.92 HK dollars and ICBC lowered 0.89 pct, or 0.04, to 4.45 HK dollars.