HONG KONG, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks jumped 380.61 points, or 1.59 percent, to close at 24,258.96 on Thursday, tracking the overnight Wall Street gains despite the mainland markets' fall.

    Turnover increased to 72.66 billion HK dollars (9.33 billion U.S. dollars) from Wednesday's 64.6 billion HK dollars (8.2 billion U.S. dollars).

    The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened 491.51 higher at 24,369.86points and traded between 24,150.51 and 24,442.07 during the day.

    "Investors were simply ignoring China's (reserve requirement ratio) hike yesterday -- they mainly focused on Wall Street's performance. I guess the Hang Seng Index may rise to above 25,000 next week given the strong momentum in the U.S. stock markets," said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.1 percent Wednesday on better-than-expected first-quarter earnings of financial firms JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

    "The (China) central bank's latest move signals that there is no pressing need for additional monetary tightening other than raising the reserve requirement ratio. The removal of a key overhang from the economic front should help boost market sentiment in the near term," said Wilson Wong, an analyst at Tai Fook Securities.

    The People's Bank of China said late Wednesday it will raise banks' reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points on April 25 to curb excess liquidity and slow lending growth.

    On Thursday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, closed down 68.86 points, or 2.09 percent, at 3,222.74 on turnover of 62.5 billion yuan (8.9 billion dollars).

    Besides Wall Street rise, record oil prices also boosted oil firms listed in Hong Kong, particularly those that focus on oil production. PetroChina rose 3.4 percent to 10.10 HK dollars and CNOOC climbed 3.1 percent to 13.38 HK dollars.

    Among bank stocks, HSBC was up 1 percent, Hang Seng Bank up 1. 16 percent, Bank of East Asia up 1.18 percent, BOC HK up 1.57 percent, and StanChart in India up 1.69 percent.

    On the Chinese mainland telecom stocks side, China Mobile was up 2.2 percent, China Unicom up 2.2 percent, Netcom up 1.79 percent, and China Telecom up 4.49 percent.

    The three mainland insurers put in mixed shows after the deposit reserve ratio was raised on the mainland. China Life was up 2.99 percent, Ping An up 3.14 percent and PICC P&C continuously down 0.74 percent on poor results.

    The six mainland banks performed well across the board, with CCB, ICBC and Bank of China up 2.37 percent, 2.6 percent and 1.62percent. Bankcomm, CM Bank and CITIC Bank lifted 3.19 percent, 2.8percent and 2.9 percent. (One U.S. dollar = 7.784 HK dollars)