Hong Kong shares ended higher Monday, led by local property firms following Sino Land's strong property sales over the weekend, while oil companies gained because of higher oil prices.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 35.89 points, or 0.2%, to 20,726.68 after trading between 20,687.27 and 20,862.38.

Market volume fell to HK$45.04 billion from HK$51.46 billion Friday.

Analysts said the market is unlikely to maintain its upward momentum ahead of Agricultural Bank of China's upcoming initial public offering as investors are worried the offering could put pressure on liquidity in the market.

Mark To, head of research at Wing Fung Financial, said he expects the index to remain in a 20,500-21,000 range this week.

'We need to be patient, as further upside will likely be limited after the index's recent rally,' he said. The benchmark index gained 2% last week.

Agricultural Bank of China, the last of China's four big state banks to go public, aims to raise as much as US$13.08 billion in the Hong Kong portion of its upcoming IPO before listing in mid-July.

The Hang Seng Property Index jumped 0.5% to 26,460.42 Monday after a report in the Standard on Monday cited an unnamed Sino Land employee as saying the developer sold nearly HK$3 billion worth of apartments at The Hermitage project on Saturday.

Sino Land rose 2.2% to HK$14.68, Sun Hung Kai Properties jumped 1.3% to HK$112.70 and New World Development ended up 1.9% at HK$13.10.

Normua analyst Paul Louie said he expects the government's auction of a prime site on The Peak in July to give a further boost to property developers.

'We reiterate our positive view on the housing market and continue to expect overall home prices to rise by 20% in 2010 and 2011 combined,' Louie said.

Oil companies gained because of strong crude prices. Cnooc advanced 2.5% to HK$13.84 and PetroChina rose 0.2% to HK$8.93.

Nymex crude oil for August delivery was up 3.0% at US$78.86 in offshore trading Friday in New York as a tropical storm moved toward Gulf of Mexico oil facilities. At 0830 GMT Monday, crude oil for August delivery was down US$0.24 at US$78.62.

Bucking the blue-chip index's rise, Chinese thermal coal companies fell after China's National Development and Reform Commission on Friday asked the country's major coal companies to keep prices stable in a bid to curb inflation as the country enters the peak electricity consumption season of summer.

China Coal dropped 6.4% to HK$10.50, Shenhua ended down 2.9% at HK$29.85 and Yanzhou Coal fell 7.2% to HK$15.74.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered the three coal companies' target price by 12%-15% Monday because coal prices will likely be lower next year.

'We take a cautious stance on the near-term outlook for coal. We see increasing policy risk that the government could begin to intervene in the coal spot market should the spot price continue to rise this summer,' the bank said. -By Yvonne Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; yvonne.lee@dowjones.com

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is planning to launch yuan-denominated stocks possibly later this year, the Century Weekly reported on its website Thursday, citing exchange Chairman Ronald Arculli.

Arculli didn't disclose more details on the products.

He also said the planned trial program under which Chinese financial institutions will set up yuan-denominated funds in Hong Kong for investment in China's A-share market will broaden the channel for offshore yuan deposits to be drawn back into the mainland's capital markets.

Local media have called the planned yuan funds 'little QFII' as the funds will offer offshore capital a way to invest in China's capital markets, aside from the existing Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor mechanism, under which the China Securities Regulatory Commission grants foreign investors the right to invest in the country's markets.

CSRC Vice Chairman Yao Gang said Saturday the CSRC is considering launching yuan-denominated products in Hong Kong as a larger amount of the currency has been circulating offshore since China started expanding its cross-border yuan-settlement program.

Hong Kong shares ended higher Tuesday, driven by bargain-hunting in Chinese property developers and metals companies after the benchmark index fell for four consecutive sessions and ended at a more than three-week low Monday.

The Hang Seng Index rose 241.92 points, or 1.2%, to 20,084.12 after trading between 19,777.83 and 20,084.12 during the session.

Market volume totaled HK$46.51 billion, up from HK$39.94 billion Monday.

Analysts said some companies have fallen to attractive levels, but investors remain worried about slowing economic activity in China, which could delay the global economic recovery. They expect the index to trade between 19,500-20,500 the rest of this week.

Blue-chip property developer China Resources Land rose 3.5% to HK$14.86 after falling 7.0% over the past four sessions, and China Overseas rose 3.0% to HK$14.92 after losing 1.9% Monday.

'The recent losses (in property stocks) were overdone. I don't expect further tightening measures by the Chinese government targeting the property sector in the near term amid the economic slowdown,' said Jason Yang, director at China Eagle Asset Management Ltd.

Aluminum producer Chalco, the best performing blue-chip, rose 4.9% to HK$5.99 after losing 9.5% over the past four sessions, boosted by the company's decision to push back the deadline for its planned CNY10 billion share placement by a year to August 2011.

'The extension of the deadline could help ease selling pressure on Chalco, but weakening demand and higher raw material costs are still the key concerns and will continue to weigh on Chalco's profitability,' said Patrick Yiu, managing director of CASH Asset Management.

Yang said the Hang Seng Index is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12 times, sightly below its historical average of around 14 times. 'But there's a lack of positive leads to support strong growing momentum.'

Gains in China also helped boost the Hong Kong market, traders said. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, ended up 1.9%, or 45.47 points, at 2409.42.

Hong Kong shares fell Tuesday, tracking declines on China's bourses after Beijing reiterated its determination to rein in the red-hot property market, with Chinese property companies leading the decline.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 36.37 points, or 0.2%, to 20,431.06 after gaining 3.1% over the previous three sessions. It traded between 20,378.99 and 20,529.41 during the session.

Market volume totaled HK$47.28 billion, down from HK$54.30 billion Monday.

Analysts said the domestic stock market will likely be volatile, adding they expect the Hang Seng Index to trade between 19,500 and 21,000 in a near term as investors eye first-half and second-quarter China macroeconomic data due Thursday.

Alvin Cheung, associate director at Prudential Brokerage, said he expects the local index to face resistance at 21,000 in the near term.

'The local bourse is taking a breather after its latest gains, with sluggish trade also affecting regional markets,' Cheung said.

China's shares fell Tuesday after the government denied a Securities Times report Monday that cited unnamed sources as saying China had loosened some controls on mortgage lending in first-tier cities.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, ended down 1.6%, or 40.43 points, at 2450.29. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.4%, or 13.86 points, to 979.77.

In response to the state-run newspaper's report, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said late Monday it would strictly carry out differentiated mortgage policies to support reasonable housing consumption by households, while also resolutely curbing investment and speculative property purchases.

Mainland developers fell Tuesday on concerns over further central government intervention in the Chinese property market.

Country Garden fell 0.9% to HK$2.30, Guangzhou R&F Properties dropped 1.3% to HK$10.96, and Agile Property ended down 1.2% at HK$8.98.

'With the central government reiterating that tightening measures need to be implemented, any loosening of mortgage lending is unlikely in the next three months, particularly when prices haven't come down significantly as yet,' JPMorgan analyst Lucia Kwong said.

Zijin Mining slid 12.2% to HK$4.90 after China's biggest gold producer said Monday it suspended operations at one of its copper plants in eastern China after acidic waste water leaked from the plant following continuous heavy rainfall and killed tons of fish in the nearby Ting River.

The company said it immediately suspended production at the plant, but didn't provide an estimate of potential losses from the incident or disclose when operations could resume.

'We expect, for each month of production disruption, Zijin's FY2010 copper output to be affected by 1.7% and earnings by 0.9%,' Credit Suisse analyst Trina Chen said.

Bucking the downward trend, Cathay Pacific Airways rose 0.6% to HK$15.60 after the carrier said it carried 27.5% more passengers in June than in the same month a year earlier, as international air traffic continued to rise in tandem with the global economic recovery. -By Yvonne Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; yvonne.lee@dowjones.com

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 305.19 points, or 1.5%, to 20,255.62 after trading between 20,226.26 and 20,665.62 during the session.

Market volume rose to HK$55.64 billion from HK$54.81 billion Wednesday.

Analysts said they expect the index to trade in a range of 19,800 and 21,000 points for the rest of the month.

'The Hong Kong market just followed weakness in China,' said Ben Kwong, associate director at KGI Asia.

'Investors focused on two things today: the slowing growth trend in China even though inflation was not that alarming; and AgBank's debut, which was also slightly disappointing,' he said.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 1.9% at 2424.30, dragged lower by Agricultural Bank of China's weak debut and economic data, which showed weaker-than-expected gross domestic product growth. Lower-than-expected growth in June's consumer price index eased near-term rate hike concerns but wasn't enough to reverse the benchmark index's losses.

China's second-quarter gross domestic product rose 10.3% from a year earlier, slowing from the first quarter's 11.9% growth and falling below market expectations of a 10.5% increase.

The country's consumer price index rose 2.9% in June, easing from May's 3.1% rise and well below economists' expectations of a 3.3% increase.

Agricultural Bank of China, the last of China's big four state banks to float shares, ended 0.8% higher at CNY2.70 from its CNY2.68 initial public offering price. Analysts had expected the bank to rise by 5% to 10% on its debut in Shanghai.

Banks led the decline in Hong Kong, with ICBC finishing 2.4% lower at HK$5.74, Bank of China dropping 2.4% to HK$4.04, and Bank of Communications shedding 1.9% to HK$8.50.

'AgBank's weak debut has led to falls in H-share banks; I think the local market will extend weakness as the H-share debut of AgBank is not expected to be appealing either,' said Alvin Cheung, associate director at Prudential Brokerage