Hong Kong’s major stock market index has extended a cumulative gain of over 6 percent in two successive trading days, buoyed by continued frenzy sparked by the central government’s reiteration of providing policy support to boost the domestic economy.

The city’s equity market index, the Hang Seng Index (HSI), soared 3.3 percent to close at 24,369 points in Thursday’s trading, with a market turnover of HK$377.1 billion ($48.3 billion). The index shot up a cumulative 6.2 percent over the two trading days of Wednesday and Thursday.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 3.6 percent to finish at 8,938 points, taking the index to register a cumulative gain of 6.8 percent on Wednesday and Thursday. The performance of the Hang Seng TECH Index was even better. With an expansion of 5.4 percent on Thursday, closing at 6,068 points, the technology stock gauge has soared 9.6 percent on Wednesday and Thursday.

Analysts at the Swiss-based investment bank UBS expected more policy support will be unveiled to achieve the economic growth target of around 5 percent for this year as announced in the Government Work Report at the National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting.

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“We still see 30 to 40 basis point policy rate cuts and a modest rebound of credit growth in 2025. Given the persistent domestic growth headwinds and external uncertainties (especially in higher tariffs), we think the government may need to roll out additional policy support later to achieve its growth target,” UBS Investment Bank’s head of Asia Economics and chief China economist Wang Tao said.

The investment bank added that the NPC meeting called for more measures to stabilize the housing market, including granting more autonomy to local governments in policy setting of home inventory destocking, and utilizing special long-term government bonds to fund the destocking program, whereas policy design and execution are key to evaluating the policy effectiveness.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based railway operator and property developer MTR Corporation reported its net profit attributable to shareholders has soared by more than double as profits from property development have nearly quadrupled.

The company’s net profit for the financial year of 2024 swelled 1.02 times to HK$15.7 billion as total revenue in the period increased 5.3 percent to HK$60 billion. Profit from property development skyrocketed 3.92 times to HK$10.2 billion while profit from recurrent business gained 68.4 percent to HK$7,210 million.

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The company declared a final dividend of HK$0.89 per share, taking the whole ordinary dividend for the year to HK$1.31 apiece, the same as for the financial year of 2023.

S&P Global Ratings said continued operational recovery will support the company to incur recurring cash flow over the next two years. Its large and stable recurring income from the sizable portfolio of station and retail commercial properties, and strong experience in managing large-scale railway investment projects should also support its stable credit rating.

But the credit rating agency cautioned that “the company will have sizable capital expenditure that will increase leverage in the coming five years, and softening Hong Kong property market sentiment also will lead to lower cash received from property development and reduced value of land inventory”.

MTR’s share price dipped 0.19 percent to close at HK$26.25 apiece on Thursday.