Shares of Chinese Internet giant Tencent soared 2.31 percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, after receiving upgrades from HSBC, data released by the Hong Kong bourse showed.

Tencent's stock (HKE:700) gained HKD3.50 in today's trading session, the highest among the traded stocks on the Hong Kong bourse in terms of turnover value, ending the day at HKD155.00.

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Investors became bullish on Tencent after HSBC Global Research maintained a "buy" rating on the tech giant's stock and raised its target price to HKD183 from HKD173.

The rating and price upgrades were due to the 34 percent revenue growth of Tencent in the third quarter of this year to Rmb26.6 billion (US$4.18 billion).

"Tencent's Q3 growth was the fastest in five quarters," HSBC said in a note. The growth was also 5 percent higher than what HSBC had expected.

The research house also predicts an 86 percent growth of Tencent's advertising revenue next year as the Chinese Internet firm continues to license more popular games and shifts to mid-core titles.

Tencent's stock opened at HKD153.50 and reached an intraday high of HKD155.70 before closing at HKD155.00

A total of 23.1 million Tencent shares were traded with a turnover of HKD3.57 billion.

Earlier this week, American multinational investment banking firm Goldman Sachs said Tencent's Q3 revenue was 4 percent above its forecast.

Morgan Stanley also reported that the Chinese Internet giant managed to post revenues that exceeded its expectations.

Last Tuesday, Tencent, the biggest social-network and online-games firm in China, announced that its net profit for Q3 rose to Rmb7.45 billion (US$1.17 billion) from Rmb5.66 billion a year ago.

Tencent's performance in the quarter ending 30 September was attributed to a sharp revenue rise in mobile games and advertising.

Tencent is the operater of WeChat and QQ, two fo China's most popular platforms for messaging and social networking.

TagsHong Kong Stock Exchange