HSI Rallies After Fed Calms Inflation Nerves

Local shares finished up nearly 500 points, in line with a broader regional rally after the US Federal Reserve eased concerns over rising inflation leading to stimulus tapering.

Following Wall Street's lead, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong started the day 49 points higher and continued to rise. It ended the day 498 points, or 1.8 percent, higher at 28,910, on turnover of HK$167.9 billion.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing surged 5.3 percent, as its new chief executive Nicolas Aguzin, made his first public appearance at a seminar, a day after officially assuming his role at the bourse operator.

Tencent advanced 4.2 percent, after some of its gaming titles received Beijing regulators' approval.

Xiaomi jumped 4.1 percent, as index provider FTSE Russell's decided to include the mainland smartphone maker into its indices again, after the US government reversed its blacklisting of the firm following a legal challenge.

The top blue-chip gainer, though, was Wuxi Biologics, which soared 5.9 percent.

But another mainland drugmaker, Sino Biopharmaceutical, shed 2.8 percent to become the biggest loser on the benchmark.

Kuaishou Technology plunged 11.5 percent, after several banks lowered their target prices on the video-sharing platform following its quarterly results.

Financial services and consumer firms led shares across the border to hit a more-than two-month high. The blue-chip CSI300 index jumped 3.2 percent, while the Shanghai Composite put on 2.4 percent. The Shenzhen Composite added 1.6 percent.

Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei was 0.7 percent firmer, Seoul's Kospi gained 0.9 percent, Australian shares rose one percent, Taiwan climbed 1.6 percent and Singapore was about 0.7 percent higher.