HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks climbed to their highest level in over four years, on their first trading day in October as tech shares jumped, fuelled by upbeat sentiment over artificial intelligence and JPMorgan’s price target hike for Alibaba.
At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 1.61 percent at 27,287.12 - its strongest close since July 2021.
Hang Seng Tech soared 3.4 percent.
Index heavyweight Alibaba gained 3.5 percent after JPMorgan raised the tech giant’s target share price to HKD240 from previous HKD165.
China’s top chipmaker SMIC surged 12.7 percent. Short video apps operator Kuaishou jumped 8.6 percent.
“A chunky price-target hike for Alibaba (by JPMorgan) after upbeat AI-cloud synergy commentary is a big sentiment lift across mega-cap China tech,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo.
OpenAI’s release of AI video-generating app Sora is helping the broader sentiment around AI, she added.
Meanwhile, biotech and pharma firms outperformed, with Hang Seng Healthcare up 2.4 percent.
Pfizer and President Donald Trump agreed a deal to lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid programme in exchange for tariff relief, reducing uncertainty for drugmakers.
Hong Kong market resumed trading on Thursday after a one-day holiday, while mainland China markets are closed from October 1 to 8 for the Golden Week holiday.
China’s national railway recorded 23.13 million trips on the first day of the country’s eight-day National Day holiday on Wednesday, up nearly 8 percent from a year earlier and setting a single-day record, state media CCTV reported.
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