Hong Kong blue chips rallied to a record closing high yesterday as investors piled into laggard HSBC Holdings Plc, while China Mobile jumped after it reported solid December subscriber data.

"We've been calling these traditional economy plays, like banks and properties since last year. They're good bets because of their relative underperformance," said Joseph Lau, director at Tai Fook Asset Management.

China plays jumped 2 percent to pace the sharp rise in the yuan-denominated A shares traded in Shanghai, with resource stocks leading the gains on higher crude prices.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index (HSI) accelerated in late trade to end at a record closing high of 20,772.22, just a few points below its all-time high of 20,779.52 set in earlier trade.

The day's turnover was HK$60.4 billion (US$7.7 billion), up from Friday's HK$59.6 billion.

"Fundamentally, nothing's changed, so a lot of it is liquidity-driven," said Andrew Sullivan, head of sales trading at Daiwa Securities.

"I think there's enough momentum coming through that this could continue up to Chinese New Year."

HSBC, the day's most active stock, jumped 1.7 percent to HK$145.4, extending Friday's sharp gains.

China Mobile raced up 4.3 percent to HK$73.85, earlier hitting a fresh five-and-a-half-year peak, after saying it added 4.83 million users in December, the highest since March when it logged a record number of new users for a single month.

Local property developers also fuelled the blue chips, as Swire Pacific climbed 3.4 percent to HK$94.75 and Cheung Kong leapt 3.2 percent to HK$108.8, earlier hitting their highest levels since April 2000.

The Hang Seng property sub-index rose 1.6 percent to 25,938.98, its highest level since August 1997.

Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa climbed 1.1 percent to HK$81.25 and Hong Kong railway operator MTR Corp jumped 5 percent to HK$22 in heavy trade.

Among resource shares, PetroChina climbed 1 percent to HK$9.67 and Sinopec Corp, the biggest boost to the H shares, surged 3.5 percent to HK$6.77.