Hong Kong stocks join global rally for best weekly winning streak since June as Baidu, Tencent rise

The Hang Seng Index added 0.2 per cent to 16,767.73 at 9.55am local time, while the Tech Index weakened 0.4 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 per cent and the CSI 300 gauge climbed for a ninth day to cap the longest winning run since January 2018.

Baidu strengthened 1.2 per cent to HK$108.30 and Meituan rose 0.5 per cent to HK$80.15, while Tencent added 0.1 per cent to HK$291.80. Online travel platform Trip.com surged 1.9 per cent to another record of HK$362.40. Developer Longfor surged 2.1 per cent to HK$10.48 and peer China Resources Land gained 1.6 per cent to HK$26.25.

Stocks rallied worldwide, with benchmarks in the US, Europe and Japan hitting record-highs after a surge in demand for AI computing chips buoyed Nvidia stock on Nasdaq, adding U$$700 billion to its market capitalisation this year.

“Market sentiment is clearly improving. Some investors who were firmly bearish on the market before the Spring Festival are now beginning to turn bullish,” Dongfan Ma, equity strategist at Shanghai-based independent research firm Horizon Insight, said in a note to clients on Thursday.

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The Hang Seng Index has risen 2.9 per cent since last Friday, setting a third weekly advance not seen since June. It has jumped 12 per cent from a 14-month low in January after Beijing intervened to halt losses and unveiled rules to curb short-selling by quant hedge funds.

In China, new home prices in first-tier cities fell 0.3 per cent in January from a month earlier, versus a 0.4 per cent drop in December, the government said. Fewer cities among the 70 tracked posted month-on-month declines, it added.

Meanwhile, the China Securities Regulatory Commission denied a media report that it had imposed trading curbs on net selling stocks during the opening and closing hours of trading. Recent exchange measures against abnormal trading patterns are part of market supervision, and are not intended to restrict selling, it added.

Elsewhere, major Asian markets traded higher. The Nikkei 225 in Japan advanced 2.2 per cent, the Kospi in South Korea added 0.8 per cent, while the S&P ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.5 per cent.