-- Hong Kong stocks ended marginally higher Friday as investors tracked developments in the Middle East.
The Hang Seng Index rose by around 62.87 points, or roughly 0.2%, to end at 25,978.07 while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index increased by 42.99 points, or around 0.5%, to close at 8,775.62.
Iran on Thursday flexed its control over the Strait of Hormuz after posting a video that purportedly showed its military seizing a huge cargo ship, Reuters reported.
The video was released amid an order by U.S. President Donald Trump asking the U.S. Navy to step up demining activity in the region and "shoot and kill" Iranian boats laying mines in the strait which used to serve as a shipping route for one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
Mizuho's head of macro strategy for APAC, Vishnu Varathan, said attempts to de-escalate the violence in the region would be non linear, Reuters reported. "I don't think anybody in the market truly believes that this will be over in a week or two," Varathan reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's consumer prices rose 1.7% in March from a year earlier, data from the city's Census and Statistics Department showed.
The underlying inflation rate, which excludes the effects of all one-off government relief measures, rose to 1.6%, up from an average of 1.3% in January and February.
Elsewhere, the city's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.7% in the January to March period from 3.8% in the December 2025 to February 2026.
In corporate news, Star Sports Medicine (HKG:1609) launched its Hong Kong initial public offering to raise about HK$829.6 million.
The China-based medical device company is offering 8.4 million H-shares at an offer price of HK$98.50 per share to raise funds for the expansion of production capacity, as well as to support research and development.