Mainland and ‌Hong Kong stocks tracked rebounds in Asian markets on Thursday as anxiety over the Middle East war was countered by emboldened bets after Beijing set out a five-year roadmap to turbocharge scientific breakthroughs and embed AI across its industrial economic machine.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index ended up close to 72 points, or 0.28 percent, at 25,321.

The China enterprises index was down 32 points, or 0.38 percent, at 8,451 while the tech index fell 33 points, or 0.69 percent, at 4,796.

Up north, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended up 26 points, or 0.64 percent, at 4,108.

The Shenzhen Component Index was 171 points, or 1.23 percent, higher at 14,088 while the ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 52 points, or 1.66 percent, to hit 3,216.

The combined turnover of the main Shanghai and Shenzhen indexes was 2.39 trillion yuan, an increase of 24.3 billion yuan from Wednesday.

Power grid equipment, computing power leasing and quantum technology sector led gains while stocks related to the seed industry and oil and gas sectors were among the major losers.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Index gained 1.9 percent to close at 55,278, trimming gains from a 4.4 percent surge earlier in the day. The broader Topix ended 1.9 percent higher at 3,702 after rallying nearly 4 percent earlier.

In Seoul, the Kospi closed up 490 points, or 9.63 percent, at 5,583 after surging as much as 12.2 percent on Thursday, swiftly erasing most of its worst-ever daily drop from a day earlier. (Reuters & Xinhua)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden