Hong Kong stocks jump on tech rally; China shares edge up
- Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng advanced 3%
Hong Kong and China stocks jumped post-US midterms, with tech leading gains. Gold, solar, and semiconductors also rose, while energy shares declined on crude price drops.
- Hong Kong tech sector's significant surge, including Alibaba and Tencent.
- Continued US-China tech competition and its impact on supply chains.
- Mainland China's favored sectors like gold, solar, and new energy.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks jumped while China shares inched higher on Thursday as market sentiment recovered post-US midterms, with tech and gold shining while energy stumbled.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.4% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.1%.
Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng advanced 3%.
The gains track Wall Street’s overnight rally as investors welcome lower uncertainty.
Hang Seng Tech surged 5%, with Alibaba and Tencent gaining more than 7% and 5% respectively.
In mainland markets, investors favored gold miners , solar power, semiconductors and new energy, but sold oil and optical communication shares.
“China and Hong Kong remain relatively attractive,” after an October correction, Morningstar analysts said in an investment outlook on Thursday.
The research firm is bullish on Alibaba and Tencent as AI adoption is beginning to translate into revenue growth.
After Democrats’ sweeping midterm election win, Cliff Zhao, chief economist at CCB International, expects US-China competition in advanced technology to continue with Democrats possiblystrengthening congressional oversight of Commerce Department export licenses and pushing for related restrictive legislation.
“China’s domestic technology supply chain may become further differentiated,” Zhao said, adding hardware exporters that depend heavily on US AI capex may be affected, while GPUs, semiconductor equipment, advanced packaging, and computing-infrastructure may continue to benefit from technological self-reliance needs.
Meanwhile Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, suggested “US-China relations will become more uncertain next year.”
State-backed oil producer PetroChina fell 7% by midday after Brent crude futures dived nearly 9% overnight, as Democrats’ midterm victory raised hopes for an end to the US-Iran war.
The smaller Shenzhen index was up 1.69%, the startup board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 1.24% and Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR50 index was up 2.11%.