Hong Kong shares close higher on surge in commodity prices

Hong Kong shares closed sharply higher on Friday, trimming the week's losses to 1.2 percent with a rally in metal, mining and oil stocks driven by record-high commodity prices.

Investors hunted for bargains after the main index corrected 3.3 percent in the previous two trading sessions amid concerns about the health of the US economy.

The Hang Seng Index closed up 632.41 points or 2.4 percent at 27,519.69 after touching a high of 27,596.89 earlier in the day.

Turnover was 99.84 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Oil prices hit a new record above 100 dollars a barrel on Thursday after US government figures showed a larger-than-expected decline in crude oil inventories, and although they have since eased back, they still remained high in afternoon Asian trade Friday at 99.29 dollars.

PetroChina, China's biggest oil producer, was up 98 cents or 7.4 percent at 14.18 dollars while offshore oil producer CNOOC gained 74 cents or 5.6 percent to 13.86 dollars.

Among the non-commodity stocks, breweries surged in Friday's trade after an aggressive 7-10 percent increase in the price of beer earlier this week.

Tsingtao Brewery was up 2.90 dollars or 9.9 percent at 32.20 dollars while China Resources Enterprise rose 1.35 dollars or 4.2 percent to 33.80 dollars.

(1 US dollar = 7.80 Hong Kong dollars)