Goodbye to 2022 stock pain as Hong Kong market looks for a fresh restart with China reopening bets
- The benchmark index capped a 15 per cent loss in 2022, a third straight year of setback with many houses betting on a better outcome in 2023
- Five stocks started trading in the city, the busiest day for debutants since July 2020
The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 19,781.41 at the close. The Tech Index gained 0.5 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index also climbed by that much. Traders waved goodbye to an otherwise lousy year as the benchmarks in both cities suffered a 15 per cent annual loss.
Trading volumes on the city’s bourse were 35 per cent below its 20-day average on Friday, according to Bloomberg data, before a long weekend. Trading was light before the New Year’s holiday, with both Hong Kong and the mainland’s markets to be shut on Monday.
Among today’s winners, NetEase gained 2.9 per cent to HK$114.50, and developer Longfor Group climbed 3 per cent to HK$24.30 while Alibaba Group Holding added 0.8 per cent to HK$86.25. AIA Group rose 2 per cent to HK$86.80, and Baidu advanced 1.6 per cent to HK$111.70.
Xu Mingqi, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, predicts that Shanghai’s economy will expand by at least 6 per cent in 2023 – above the national average – as China’s reopening measures lure foreign capital into the nation’s top commercial hub. Shanghai’s economy is the biggest among all mainland cities.
“Some high-frequency indexes such as city Traffic congestion and subway passenger volumes have now shown some signs of stabilisation,” said Wu Kaida, an analyst at Topsperity Securities. “The worst may already be behind us, and we are looking forward to a good start into 2023.”