Sept 23 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares closed higher on Thursday, with assurances from debt-laden developer China Evergrande Group lifting real estate stocks as markets resumed trade after a holiday.
The Hang Seng index rose 1.2%, to 24,510.98, while the China Enterprises Index gained 1.1%, to 8,733.73.
China Evergrande soared as much as 30% in morning trading and ended up 17.6%.
Evergrande said it held an internal meeting late on Wednesday night, urging company executives to ensure the quality delivery of properties and redemption of wealth management products.
Evergrande said it had “resolved” one coupon payment due on Thursday but didn’t give more details, leaving it unclear what this means for $83.5 million in dollar bond interest payments due on the day.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index surged 8.1%, while the Hang Seng Property Index was up 4.6%.
Property management services provider Country Garden Services Holdings jumped 12.7%, the biggest daily gainer on the Hang Seng Index.
Given the high cash level in the offshore market and solid inflows, sentiment should gradually recover from the lows after the Evergrande noise dies down, and policy may see some easing as well, Nomura said in a note.
The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.9%. Tech giants Meituan and Tencent Holdings went up 5.2% and 2.9%, respectively.
Alibaba Group declined 0.2% after it said the company had begun to send its consumer credit data to a database run by China’s central bank.
A sub-index tracking energy stocks gained 2.5%.