Hong Kong Slides On Lack of Mainland Buyers
4 Min. Read Time
Key News
Asian equities ended the week mixed as Middle East tensions weighed on risk sentiment and the US dollar strengthened. Taiwan and South Korea did not seem to mind, as both markets ripped higher. Meanwhile, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Vietnam remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Hong Kong reopened following Monday’s half day with a thud, led lower by growth stocks. Tencent fell -2.06% despite its Yuan Bao large language model (LLM) reaching 50 million daily average users (DAUs). Alibaba fell -4.91% despite its Qwen LLM assisting in 130 million E-Commerce orders during the holiday. Xiaomi fell -3.55%, Baidu fell -6.25%, CATL fell -1.03%, and BYD fell -2.4%, all underperforming the broad market.
Volumes were exceedingly light, while value stocks, such as banks and oil, managed small gains. The downdraft may indicate that foreign investors are using Hong Kong-listed large cap technology stocks as the funding source for purchases in other markets. This was further evidenced by non-benchmark AI plays bucking the growth downdraft, as recent IPOs Minimax and Knowledge Atlas gained +14.52% and +42.72%, respectively. I would avoid reading too much into such a light volume day, though the move is disappointing, especially as there was some positive news overnight.
Robotic stocks had a strong day. Robosense gained +9.24% after announcing that its 2026 loss will decline significantly. This was following the impressive dancing robots featured in the CCTV New Year's Gala, which is one of the most-watched television events in China, akin to the Super Bowl in the US. Privately-held humanoid robotics firm Unitree announced it will sell 10,000 humanoids in 2026, as it prepares for a potential IPO.
Healthcare managed to buck the growth downdraft as well.
Southbound Stock Connect remains closed until Tuesday’s Mainland reopening. Buyers from the Mainland, coming in through the access program, would usually provide support to a downdraft like today. But, sadly they were absent due to the holiday.
The Ministry of Commerce (MoC) announced that holiday sales in 78 business districts improved 4.5% to 4.8% from last year. Meanwhile, social media was flooded with images and video of huge crowds at tourist sites.
We also had two interesting developments in US-China relations. The US Department of Defense (DoD) pulled the inclusion announcement of Alibaba, Baidu and BYD from their no-procurement list. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump will tap the brakes on the next round of military goods sales to Taiwan. Why? Clearly, he wants his April trip to go well!
A China report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) garnered significant negative attention from the media overnight. Having read it myself, I did not find it remotely as negative as the headlines would suggest. As they say in the media industry, “if it bleeds, it leads”.
Enjoy your weekend!
Cover image courtesy of CGTN
Last Night's Performance
| Country / Index | Ticker | 1-Day Change |
|---|---|---|
| China (Hong Kong) | HSI Index | -1.1% |
| Hang Seng Tech | HSTECH Index | -2.9% |
| Hong Kong Turnover | HKTurn Index | 94.6% |
| Hong Kong Short Sale Turnover | HKSST Index | 105.5% |
| Short Turnover as a % of Hong Kong Turnover | N/A | 23.8% |
| Southbound Stock Connect Net Buy/Sell (US $ Millions) | N/A | Closed |
| China (Shanghai) | SHCOMP Index | Closed |
| China (Shenzhen) | SZCOMP Index | Closed |
| China (STAR Board) | Star50 Index | Closed |
| Mainland Turnover | .chturn Index | Closed |
| Japan | NKY Index | -1.1% |
| India | SENSEX Index | 0.4% |
| Indonesia | JCI Index | 0% |
| Malaysia | FBMKLCI Index | 0% |
| Pakistan | KSE100 Index | 1.2% |
| Philippines | PCOMP Index | 0.9% |
| South Korea | KOSPI Index | 2.3% |
| Taiwan | TWSE Index | Closed |
| Thailand | SET Index | -1% |
| Singapore | STI Index | 0.3% |
| Australia | AS51 Index | -0.1% |
| Vietnam | VNINDEX Index | Closed |
| Indicator | Hong Kong | Mainland China |
|---|---|---|
| Today's Volume % of 1-Year Average | 63 | Closed |
| Advancing Stocks | 185 | Closed |
| Declining Stocks | 309 | Closed |
| Outperforming Factors | Dividend Yield | Closed |
| Underperforming Factors | Growth, EPS Revision, Liquidity | Closed |
| Top Sectors | Healthcare, Energy, Industrials | Closed |
| Bottom Sectors | Discretionary, Tech, Communication | Closed |
| Top Subsectors | Petroleum, Building, Commercial Services | Closed |
| Bottom Subsectors | Consumer Staples Distribution, Consumer Discretionary Distribution, Media/Entertainment | Closed |
| Southbound Connect Buys | Closed | N/A |
| Southbound Connect Sells | Closed | N/A |
| MSCI China All Shares Index | # of Stocks | Average 1-Day Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong Listed | 165 | -1.71 |
| Communication Services | 11 | -2.61 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 28 | -3.16 |
| Consumer Staples | 13 | -2.4 |
| Energy | 6 | 1.19 |
| Financials | 25 | 0.15 |
| Health Care | 16 | 1.56 |
| Industrials | 22 | 0.24 |
| Information Technology | 12 | -3.13 |
| Materials | 14 | -1.19 |
| Real Estate | 7 | -0.81 |
| Utilities | 11 | 0 |
| Mainland China Listed | 386 | Closed |
| Communication Services | 8 | Closed |
| Consumer Discretionary | 26 | Closed |
| Consumer Staples | 19 | Closed |
| Energy | 12 | Closed |
| Financials | 64 | Closed |
| Health Care | 31 | Closed |
| Industrials | 58 | Closed |
| Information Technology | 95 | Closed |
| Materials | 52 | Closed |
| US & Hong Kong Dually Listed | Ticker | 1-Day Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Tencent HK | 700 HK Equity | -2.1 |
| Alibaba HK | 9988 HK Equity | -4.9 |
| JD.com HK | 9618 HK Equity | -2 |
| NetEase HK | 9999 HK Equity | -4.3 |
| Yum China HK | 9987 HK Equity | 0.8 |
| Baozun HK | 9991 HK Equity | 0 |
| Baidu HK | 9888 HK Equity | -6.3 |
| Autohome HK | 2518 HK Equity | 0 |
| Bilibili HK | 9626 HK Equity | -5.3 |
| Trip.com HK | 9961 HK Equity | -1 |
| EDU HK | 9901 HK Equity | 0.9 |
| Xpeng HK | 9868 HK Equity | -2.6 |
| Weibo HK | 9898 HK Equity | -2 |
| Li Auto HK | 2015 HK Equity | -2.8 |
| Nio Auto HK | 9866 HK Equity | -1.6 |
| Zhihu HK | 2390 HK Equity | -0.9 |
| KE HK | 2423 HK Equity | -2.6 |
| Tencent Music Entertainment HK | 1698 HK Equity | -5.5 |
| Meituan HK | 3690 HK Equity | -1.6 |
| Hong Kong's Most Heavily Traded by Value | 1-Day Change (%) |
|---|---|
| TENCENT HOLDINGS LTD | -2.1 |
| ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD | -4.9 |
| MINIMAX GROUP INC | 14.5 |
| XIAOMI CORP-CLASS B | -3.5 |
| KNOWLEDGE ATLAS TECHNOLOGY-H | 42.7 |
| BAIDU INC-CLASS A | -6.3 |
| AIA GROUP LTD | -0.1 |
| MEITUAN-CLASS B | -1.6 |
| TRIP.COM GROUP LTD | -1 |
| NETEASE INC | -4.3 |
Last Night's Exchange Rates, Prices, & Yields
Mainland China's fixed income, currency, and commodity markets were closed overnight.
