A busy day for results: slew of corporate heavyweights set to report on Thursday
China Mobile, CK Hutchison, Cheung Kong Property Holdings, PCCW and Alibaba, follow on from Li Ning and chipmaker SMIC
A slew of corporate heavyweights report latest earnings later on Thursday, and early indications are the results will be strong:
● China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile carrier, dipped 0.1 per cent to HK$96 in morning trade, however, the shares have jumped 9 per cent so far this year.
The telecoms giant is scheduled to release its half-years around 4pm, and the consensus is for net profit of between 57.5 billion yuan to 59.7 billion yuan, up 0.4 per cent to 4 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
● CK Hutchison, the conglomerate owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, dropped 0.6 per cent to trade at HK$93.35 on Thursday morning. and has now dropped 12 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Announcing half-year results at around 4.15pm, analysts surveyed by Reuters estimate net profit to rise 4 per cent to HK$15.55 billion from HK$14.94 billion a year earlier.
● Cheung Kong Property Holdings, controlled by Li Kai-shing, slipped 0.2 per cent to trade at HK$57.7, and analysts polled by South China Morning Post expect the property developer’s core earnings to be between HK$6.3 billion to HK$10.6 billion.
PCCW, Hong Kong’s telecoms service provider, retreated 0.4 per cent to trade at HK$5.71, before its scheduled release of earnings at 5pm.
● New York-listed Alibaba Group is scheduled to announce its fiscal first-quarter results at 6pm. The stock advanced 2.5 per cent on Wendesday night to close at US$87.33.
Analysts polled by Reuters anticipate operating income to jump 48 per cent to 30 billion yuan, bolstered by fast growth in gross merchandise sales and cloud computing business.
● Already on Thursday, shares in Chinese sportswear maker Li Ning and chipmaker SMIC both soared after reporting better-than-expected results.
Li Ning shares pulled 8 per cent higher to HK$4.46, after revealing a 113 million yuan profit for the first half of 2016, compared with a loss of 29 million yuan a year earlier.
SMIC posted a 21 per cent jump in net profit for the second quarter, blowing past market estimates.