HONG KONG, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hong stocks extended its marginal opening gains to 1.23 percent during Thursday's trading, boosted by the surge on Chinese mainland's market and led by the mainland's lenders and property developers.

    With Wall Street falling while Chinese mainland's markets hiking, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened with 5 points higher, and widened its gains in the afternoon. The blue chip index rose 239.68 points, or 1.23 percent, to close at 19,761.68 on Thursday, after fluctuating between 19,823.03 and 19,526.89.

    Turnover rose to 57.77 billion HK dollars (7.46 billion U.S. dollars) from Wednesday's 53.38 billion HK dollars (6.89 billion U. S. dollars).

    Analysts said they expect the index to remain volatile in near term, due to a lack of clear direction from the U.S. and the Chinese mainland's stock markets.

    Three of the four major sub-indices gained ground, with the properties moving up most by 1.46 percent, the commerce and industry 1.36 percent, as well as the finance 1.26 percent. The utilities-sub-index fell 0.42 percent.

    Chinese mainland's lenders and insurers moved higher across the board. ICBC ended 2.1 percent higher at 5.38 HK dollars, Bank of China up 1.6 percent to 3.81 HK dollars, and China Construction Bank up 0.9 percent at 5.83 HK dollars. China Life was up 2.77 percent while Ping An up 3.07 percent.

    Chinese mainland property developers staged strong rebounds Thursday following losses in recent sessions.

    China Resources Land surged 8.2 percent to 17.20 HK dollars after shedding 16 percent since the beginning of August. Sino Ocean Land rallied 9.5 percent to 7.62 HK dollars after falling 15. 9 percent in the past month. Shimao Property closed 8.0 percent higher at 12.96 HK dollars, after tumbling 26 percent from its peak of 16.28 HK dollars on Aug. 3.

    Heavyweight HSBC Holdings rose 0.43 percent to 81 HK dollars.

    With New York oil futures holding firm, CNOOC rose 1.79 percent while PetroChina up 0.94 percent, and Sinopec Corp up 1.67 percent.

    With gold price mounting, gold stock Zijin Mining was up 8.52 percent.