Hong Kong stock market up on Monday, oil prices rise amid Middle East conflict : analyst

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index market ended higher Monday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 2.36 percent to close at 25,143.05 points.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 3.01 percent to end at 8,381.90 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 2.79 percent to end at 4,752.15 points.

Traditional sectors rather than tech led Monday's gains, with oil prices rising as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran continued, said Timothy Pope, a China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst.

"In Hong Kong we saw a fairly strong broad-based rally, actually. The Hang Seng rose 2.4 percent. The activity in Hong Kong was looking a bit defensive-leaning as well. We saw traditional sectors, value sectors as well, favored over the tech plays for most of the session. The oil major CNOOC added 5.2 percent as we saw only a handful of ships make it through the Straits of Hormuz at the weekend -- one of them actually appeared to be on fire. The resumption of strikes by both the U.S. and Iran has driven oil prices back up and Brent crude is back above 90 U.S. dollars a barrel today," Pope said.

"Tech shares did join in the rally later on in the session. We saw Chinese games and online services company NetEase add around 4 percent, the short video app Kuaishou was up fairly strongly as well," he said.

Hong Kong stock market up on Monday, oil prices rise amid Middle East conflict : analyst

Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have risen to 2,423, including 967 deaths, health authorities said in an update on Monday.

It said 734 patients remained in quarantine or treatment as of July 19, while 469 people had recovered since the outbreak began.

Health authorities also reported a newly affected health zone, Adja, in Ituri province, bringing the total to 47 across five provinces, of which 46 remain under active transmission.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, was declared on May 15. It has since spread to five provinces. Population movements, insecurity, artisanal mining activities and cross-border exchanges with Uganda and South Sudan continue to facilitate transmission.

As of July 19, the outbreak has also infected 121 frontline health workers in Ituri province, including 36 deaths.

Meanwhile, the DRC and Uganda conducted a joint technical assessment of a mobile laboratory in Kasenyi near the border to strengthen cross-border surveillance.

DR Congo Ebola cases top 2,400 amid continued transmission