Hong Kong stocks hover near 3-year high before Fed meeting, Tencent results
Chinese tech giants mostly lower; Tencent likely to report a 62 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profit later on Wednesday
The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 24,777.01 at the noon break, hovering near a three-year high. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.8 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index were both little changed.
Tencent, the third-largest weighting on the city’s stock benchmark with an 8.1 per cent representation, added 0.2 per cent to HK$542.00. China Resources Beer Holdings rallied 5.4 per cent to HK$30.05 after Daiwa Securities raised the 12-month price target for the brewer by 6 per cent, citing better prices and margins for its products than its peers. China Unicom sank 4.2 per cent to HK$9.19 after the mobile operator’s full-year earnings fell short of expectations. Alibaba Group Holding dropped 1.7 per cent to HK$141.00 and search-engine operator Baidu slumped almost 4 per cent to HK$99.30.
The world-beating rally in Hong Kong comes up against full-year earnings of 38 companies on the Hang Seng Index in the next few days. Strong report cards will justify and instil more optimism in the rally that has significantly narrowed the valuation gap between Chinese and US technology stocks. The index has advanced 24 per cent in 2025.
“The run-up in prices has fully priced in expectations about the earnings recovery,” said Liu Chenming, an analyst at GF Securities. “There’s a risk of cooling valuation expansions with earnings beating expectations.”