Bank of China Hong Kong ($BOC HONG KONG 02388.HK$) opened sharply higher and continued its climb, surging as much as 8.11% to HK$22.65 as of 10:07 GMT+8, marking a new high since August 2023 during intraday session and pushing its market capitalization over HK$221.5 billion.

Following its earnings release on March 28, the bank reported a significant 26.1% increase in annual net profit to HK$32.72 billion, benefiting from the global high-interest environment which widened its net interest margin by 0.28 percentage points to 1.53%. The bank proposed a final dividend of HK$1.145, up 25.8% year-on-year, bringing the total annual dividend to HK$1.672, an increase of 23.2%, resulting in a payout ratio of 54%. Based on the closing price of HK$20.95 last Thursday, the dividend yield stands at 7.98%.