HONG KONG: China and Hong Kong shares rose on Wednesday after Beijing set an ambitious economic growth target and vowed more support for domestic consumption and the tech industry as a trade war with the United States heats up.
The blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, recouping losses earlier in the session.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.8%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 4%.
China’s top policymakers announced a 2025 growth target of roughly 5%, record 4% deficit-to-GDP ratio and inflation target of 2% as expected, as its rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), began its annual meeting.
Among sector-specific measures, the government said it will support the application of large-scale AI models, mentioning AI models for the first time in a government work report, after the global fanfare over Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
The government also promised a “special action plan” to stimulate consumption and set aside 300 billion yuan ($41.27 billion) to support a recently-expanded consumer subsidy to revive sluggish spending at home as exports are expected to come under mounting pressure from US tariffs.
The announcements were largely in line with expectations and the market reaction was quite positive, said Jason Chan, senior investment strategist at Bank of East Asia.
“The policy direction also clearly stressed support for AI and the tech sector, which are lending more help to the Hong Kong markets where they have bigger weightings.”
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