HONG KONG, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks widened its gains on strong corporate earnings Wednesday, with the blue chip Hang Seng Index extending its rally to steer clear of the 25,000 mark, prompting a rebound in market confidence.

    The Hang Seng Index, key barometer of the market, ignored overnight losses on Wall Street to open slightly higher at 25,000.49, up 61.34 points, or 0.25 percent. It gradually widened its gains to 25,149.63 at mid-day and concluded the day at 25,289.24, representing an increase of 350.09 points, or 1.4 percent.

    The index has gained over 1,000 points since Monday and went above 25,300 briefly during the afternoon session. It was only about an hour after lunch break, when analysts were talking about the index testing the 25,300 mark.

    The April HSI futures were also up and still representing a positive bias.

    The index moved between 24,919.73 and 25,361.29 on a high turnover of 105.3 billion HK dollars (13.5 billion U.S. dollars), which was higher than Tuesday's 87.74 billion HK dollars (11.25 billion U.S. dollars).

    Analysts said it is possible that the Hang Seng Index will test26,000 in recent term as the market sentiment is turning more positive, citing higher trading volume, which rarely went above 100 billion HK dollars in recent weeks.

    Chinese mainland-based shares led the gains, with telecommunications giant and heavy-weighted blue chip China Mobileadding 3 HK dollars, or 2.27 percent, at 134.9 HK dollars, contributing 78.4 points alone to the rise of the Hang Seng Index.

    China Unicom, a far second to China Mobile in the Chinese mainland telecommunications sector, edged up 0.12 HK dollars at 16. 7 HK dollars.

    Mainland oil giant PetroChina surged 4.82 percent at 11.3 HK dollars on hopes of it receiving subsidies, contributing 47.7 points to the rise of the Hang Seng Index. Sinopec also posted a gain of 0.3 HK dollars, or 3.82 percent, at 8.15 HK dollars.

    Thirty-one of the total 43 blue chips, of which nearly half are based in the Chinese mainland, turned out gainers, outnumbering the 11 losers.

    The properties sub-index gained the most, up 2.17 percent, or 677.48 points, to close at 31,830.72, followed by the commerce and industry category, which added 246.02 points, or 1.7 percent, at 14,738.53.

    The utilities sub-index turned out the only loser among the four major categories, sliding 768.31 points, or 1.73 percent, to 43,705.49.

    The finance genre added 460.74 points, or 1.26 percent, at 36, 985.26, with banking giant HSBC edging up 0.38 percent at 132 HK dollars.

    HSBC's local unit Hang Seng Bank closed up 0.33 percent at 152.9 HK dollars.

    Insurer China Life gained 0.85 HK dollars, or 2.79 percent, to close at 31.3 HK dollars, while ICBC and Bank of China, both mainland-based commercial banking giant, added 0.49 percent and 1.32 percent, respectively.

    China Construction Bank added 0.1 HK dollar at 6.63 HK dollars.

    SHK Properties, the largest residential house developer in Hong Kong, build on recent gains by adding 2.8 HK dollars, or 2.12 percent, at 135 HK dollars.

    Shipping giant China COSCO surged 1.65 HK dollars, or 7.95 percent, at 22.4 HK dollars, upon reporting a net profit growth of135 percent. COSCO Pacific added 0.66 HK dollars, or 4.8 percent, at 14.4 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollar)