Hong Kong stocks closed higher for their fifth consecutive session on Friday, bringing the Hang Seng's gains this year to 36 percent, the biggest annual percentage rise since 2009. The market's stellar performance this year was fuelled by a global economic recovery, ample liquidity in the global financial system, and money inflows from mainland China.

At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 55.44 points or 0.19 percent at 29,919.15. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.22 percent to 11,709.3. The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.3 percent while the IT sector dipped 0.41 percent, the financial sector was 0.4 percent higher and property sector dipped 0.11 percent.

The top gainer on Hang Seng was AIA Group Ltd up 2.07 percent, while the biggest loser was Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd which was down 2.36 percent. So far this year, China's H-share index is up around 24 percent.

The top gainers among H-shares were Air China Ltd up 3.49 percent, followed by Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd gaining 2.78 percent and Great Wall Motor Co Ltd up by 2.16 percent. The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd, which was down 2.02 percent, Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd which fell 1.0 percent and China Pacific Insurance Group Co Ltd down by 0.9 percent.

About 1.41 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 79.1 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 1.78 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 1.38 billion. The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.61 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.9 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2017