Tencent, Alibaba lead Hong Kong stock gains on earnings tonic while HSBC erases drop as banks hold rates after Fed, HKMA act
- The HKMA lifted its base rate to a 15-year high, while commercial lenders like HSBC are expected to hold their prime rates, most analysts predicted
- Tencent’s fourth-quarter earnings surpassed market expectations, while annual loss was narrower than consensus estimates
The Hang Seng Index rose 2.3 per cent to 20,049.64 at the closing of Thursday trading to claw its way up from a three-month low. The Tech Index surged 4.7 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6 per cent.
Tencent jumped 7.5 per cent to HK$373.20, while Alibaba Group gained 3.9 per cent to HK$86.05. Sunny Optical advanced 5.4 per cent to HK$97.05, while shipping giant Orient Overseas International surged 16.3 per cent to HK$151.80.
Sun Hung Kai Properties added 0.4 per cent to HK$106.60, and Henderson Land rose 1.1 per cent to HK$27, leading gains among Hong Kong developers. HSBC climbed 0.1 per cent to HK$53.55 after losing as much as 2 per cent. The city’s biggest lender and other peers today kept their prime rate unchanged.
Fund manager who forecast January pullback backs Hong Kong stocks again
“Hong Kong stocks might have already bottomed,” analysts at Huatai Securities said in a note on Thursday. Local investors are gradually turning back to the risk-on mode as concerns over the banking crisis have eased, and the market now expects a more dovish Fed, they added.
China (and Thailand) produced more companies that beat consensus expectations in recent fourth-quarter report cards, Goldman Sachs said in a note on March 17. Profit upgrades involving Hang Seng Index members have surpassed downgrades in March, the first time in 19 months, according to Huatai Securities.
Elsewhere, key Asian markets were mixed on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 0.2 per cent and the S&P ASX 200 Index in Australia weakened 0.7 per cent, while the Kospi in South Korea gained 0.3 per cent.