HSI rallies, earnings season in focus

Investors moved past inflation and vaccine concerns in anticipation of the start of the earnings season on Wednesday, bringing healthy gains to many markets in the region.

Locally, the Hang Seng Index took the cue from Wall Street to start nearly 300 points higher and climbed further during the day.

It finished up 403 points, or 1.4 percent, at 28,900, on turnover of HK$138.1 billion.

Major tech firms recovered as traders hoped that their pledge to comply with anti-monopoly rules and a record fine for Alibaba would satisfy antitrust regulators in Beijing. Meituan rebounded 3.6 percent. Heavyweight Tencent put on 2.4 percent.

Biotech firms and automakers also had a good day. Wuxi Biologics and CSPC Pharmaceutical each rallied more than 4.5 percent. Geely surged 5.5 percent.

The top gainer on the blue-chip index was AAC Technologies, which soared almost 6 percent.

Across the border, the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.6 percent, while the blue-chip CSI300 index added 0.8 percent. The Shenzhen Composite gained 1.4 percent.

Elsewhere, the Kospi in South Korea inched up 0.4 percent. Taiwan was about 0.25 percent firmer. Australia ended 0.66 percent higher. But the Nikkei in Tokyo shed 0.4 percent. Singapore was also down.