HONG KONG - Hong Kong's new loans approved in February rose 8.2 percent to HK$30.3 billion ($3.9 billion), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced on Friday.

Approvals for primary market transactions increased 26.5 percent to HK$500 million, while those for secondary market transactions added 9.9 percent to HK$2 billion.

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Approvals for refinancing transactions decreased 4.5 percent to Hk$200 million, and the number of new applications fell 10. 2 percent to 17,478.

Around 7 percent of the new mortgage loans approved in February were priced with reference to best lending rates, with the largest portion in the price range of 2 percent to less than 2.25 percent. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to Hong Kong Interbank Offer Rate decreased slightly to 92 percent from 92. 2 percent in January.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans climbed 1.3 percent to HK$755.8 billion.

Both the mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01 percent and 0.04 percent respectively in February.