Yesterday's announcement by the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation that the government would provide a top-up guarantee on mortgages was good for the market. But we are still a bit cautious. It was very light turnover and there was no real selling pressure.
Most investors were expecting a correction this morning after sharp gains in the past few days but when they saw that there wasn't much selling pressure, buyers came back and pushed up the market.
It's good to see CLP making a one-off gain last year and investors are happy to see that its earnings from overseas operations are increasing. However, it faces problems ahead as the government looks to change the scheme of controls which apply to local power companies.
Futures are still trying to point this market up. People are now beginning to say this market could reach 11,000 by the year end.
You can't just get people to suddenly discover integrity overnight.
The index's performance has been quite disappointing the last couple of days. I see no reason for the market to soften. There is quite a lot of money around which should support the market going forward.
We could have another surge in the markets later in the year, around September or October, as the economies show further signs of getting stronger.
The market was very quiet because most investors didn't want to take any significant positions ahead of the Christmas holidays.
We are getting a lot of rotational buying on blue-chip stocks right now. People are buying stocks when they are hurt or lagging.
They won't go mad; they're coming back after being in the doldrums.
