Turnover remained healthy because some institutional investors chased after select laggard industrial and retail stocks.

What's important for investors to realize about the Dow is it's not just steel stocks and industrial-related stocks. There are growth stocks. There are financial, entertainment and industrial stocks. So when one sector isn't doing well, another sector may be doing well. And that's exactly what's propelling the Dow.

The real pressure in Hong Kong should be on semiconductor stocks like ASM Pacific and QPL, ... As we don't have semiconductor blue chips, pressure on the index shouldn't be too great.

Hong Kong has been outperforming other markets, but buying has mainly been of banking and property stocks and they could not hold at this level because global equities are going down.

Hong Kong has been outperforming other markets, but buying has mainly been of banking and property stocks and they could not hold at this level because global equities are going down,

Gains in the market are fund-led. Trading in the region remains relatively strong with funds pursuing select stocks, among them metals. Overnight gains on Wall Street also helped sentiment.