Analyst recaps Hong Kong stock market's Friday performance

Hong Kong's stock market ended higher Friday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.46 percent to close at 24,139.57 points.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.22 percent to end at 8,687.56 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.61 percent to end at 5,248.48 points.

Timothy Pope, a market analyst, recapped Hong Kong's stock market performance on Friday.

"A strong morning, a bit of a wobble after lunch, and then a fairly swift decline leading up to the close of trade. However, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong managed to hang on to some of its gains, and ended the session 0.5 percent higher. Chinese biotech firms were the Hang Seng's best performers today -- WuXi AppTec added 10.5 percent after the latest profit guidance showed its expecting first half profit to more than double this year to the equivalent of about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. That dragged up some other players in that sector, WuXi Biologics as well, its shares up more than three percent," he said.

"The food delivery app Meituan has been an active stock this week, it was up as well -- 1.2 percent today. That came after a report from Morgan Stanley suggested it will ultimately win the food delivery price war which has erupted over the last couple of weeks. That report says that although Meituan's market share has declined, and will likely drop further, Meituan's peak daily order volume is still miles ahead of its competition and will still dominate more than half the market," he said.

Analyst recaps Hong Kong stock market's Friday performance

The closure of Poipet border crossing, the largest land border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia, has left large numbers of people stranded on both sides of the border and unable to return home amid continuing clashes.

At the Thai side of the border on Saturday, security personnel carried out strict checks on all vehicles and people at a distance of about 500 meters from the Poipet crossing, and only those holding Cambodian documents and relevant personnel were allowed access to the area.

"I have been in Thailand for about three to four years, working in a factory. Now the situation at the border is not good, so I want to go back to my hometown," said one of the stranded Cambodian nationals.

Another more than 20 Cambodian nationals failed to go home through the Poipet border crossing on Saturday, and were later picked up by a kind-hearted Thai local, who said that many groups of Cambodians had tried to cross the border every day but failed recently.

"They have no place to sleep, and they would be bitten by mosquitoes if sleeping outdoors, so I want to take them to my place. They just can't go through this checkpoint," said the local.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said at a press conference Saturday that 6,000 to 7,000 Thai nationals were stranded on the Cambodian side of the Poipet border checkpoint.

Closure of Poipet border crossing leaves many stranded amid clashes