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An elderly looks at the electronic screen displaying stock prices outside a bank in Hong Kong. Photo: Winson Wong

Hong Kong stocks advance as developers, carmakers get China boost while Alibaba, Baidu slip on tech earnings outlook

  • Hang Seng snapped a two-day slide in a volatile trading day even as concerns about tech earnings hit Alibaba, Baidu
  • HSBC, Kuaishou, property developers and carmakers chalked up gains as China asked lenders to speed up loans for troubled industries
Hong Kong stocks snapped a two-day loss as property developers and carmakers gained after China urged lenders to speed up loans for companies to overcome a slump amid Covid-19 lockdowns. Alibaba Group and JD.com led most tech leaders lower on corporate earnings outlook.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 per cent to 20,171.27 at the close of Wednesday trading, halting a 3 per cent slide over the past two days. The Tech Index added 0.3 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rebounded 1.2 per cent.

Country Garden and New World Development added 1.2 per cent as 10 of the 12 members lifted the Hang Seng Properties Index by 0.4 per cent. Geely Auto surged 4.5 per cent to HK$14.76 while GreatWall Motor soared 11 per cent to HK$13.76. HSBC jumped 3.1 per cent to HK$50.95 while ICBC added 0.4 per cent to HK$4.66.

Top officials at the People’s Bank of China met with major lenders this week to review credit flows in the system, the central bank said in a statement on its website on Tuesday. Policymakers urged lenders to quicken loan approvals and maintain the stable supply of financing to the property sector, it added.

“The sentiment is quite divergent, there is one group [of investors] who welcome the [support] measures, while another remains concerned about the impact of zero-Covid policy,” said Mark Po, head of research at China Galaxy International Securities. “What we need is the direction for internet-platform operators. Bear in mind that we have a series of earnings announcements too.”

Chinese tech leaders slide, tracking an overnight slide in US peers as the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.3 per cent. More than US$462 billion of market value was lost after Snap Inc’s profit warning sparked a sell-off in social media stocks.

01:48

Shanghai plans to start lifting months-long lockdown in June

Shanghai plans to start lifting months-long lockdown in June

Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of this newspaper, slipped 1.5 per cent to HK$82.35. JD.com lost 1.5 per cent to HK$198.60 and Lenovo Group declined 2.4 per cent to HK$7.19. Baidu fell 1.5 per cent to HK$115.50 while Bilibili tumbled 4.3 per cent to HK$152.

Kuaishou, China’s second biggest short-video platform operator after ByteDance, surged 5.4 per cent to HK$66.75 after first-quarter revenue and earnings beat market consensus. It remains an outlier after report cards from Tencent and JD.com underwhelmed earlier this week.

Alibaba Health Information will report its quarterly results today. Lenovo Group, Baidu and Alibaba Group will follow on Thursday.

Major Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday. Japanese stocks slipped 0.3 per cent, while South Korean and Australian shares strengthened at least 0.4 per cent.

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