HK Hot Stocks-ICBC jumps but Cathay falters

HONG KONG, July 4 (Reuters) - At 0215 GMT, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.7 percent at 21,387.07.

The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of top locally listed Chinese firms rose 1 percent. Here are some of the stocks on the move:

* Chinese banks led the main index's recovery after Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest lender by market capitalisation, said its interim profit grew at least 50 percent based on Chinese accounting standards. [ID:nHKG337025]

ICBC, the most heavily traded stock in early business, rose 1.8 percent. Smaller rival China Construction Bank (0939.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) was 1 percent higher and Bank of Communications (3328.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) gained 1.6 percent.

China Merchants Bank (3968.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), the nation's sixth largest lender, rose 4.5 percent.

* Asia's No. 3 carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), fell 3 percent after CLSA downgraded the stock to sell from underperform and slashed its 2008 earnings estimate by 59 percent.

On Wednesday Cathay's shares dived to a two-year low after the company warned investors of disappointing first-half earnings, saying it was forced to pay 60 percent more for jet fuel in the six-month period. [ID:nHKG346813]

But shares in parent Swire Pacific (0019.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 2.2 percent after Standard & Poor's said its ratings and outlook on Swire were not immediately affected by Cathay's profit warning, as it expects the conglomerate's dividends to be fairly stable. (Reporting by Parvathy Ullatil; Editing by Keiron Henderson)