"Market Review" Hong Kong stocks rise with external markets, AI concepts and domestic insurance stocks dance

Hong Kong stocks rose today along with the external stock markets. The University of Michigan reported last Friday that the preliminary consumer confidence index for February in the U.S. rose to 57.3 (the third consecutive month of increase), and the inflation expectation for the next year dropped significantly from 4% in January to 3.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5% last Friday, breaking the 50,000 mark for the first time, while the Nasdaq rose 2.2%. At the time of writing, the yield on U.S. 2-year bonds rose to 3.51%, and the yield on U.S. 10-year bonds rose to 4.23%, with the U.S. dollar index falling to 97.33. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expects that the Federal Reserve will not quickly reduce its balance sheet and may take a year to decide on its balance sheet policy. Dow futures rose 77 points or 0.15%, while Nasdaq futures rose 9 points or 0.04%. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 57 points or 1.4% to close at 4,123 points, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 2.2%, and the ChiNext Index rose nearly 3%, with a total trading volume of 2.25 trillion yuan in the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets.

The Hang Seng Index opened 422 points higher, at one point rising 551 points to a high of 27,111 points, closing up 467 points or 1.8% at 27,027 points; the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 136 points or 1.5% to close at 9,168 points; the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 71 points or 1.3% to close at 5,417 points, with a total market turnover of 255.142 billion yuan. The total turnover of northbound trading was 100.432 billion yuan, while southbound funds had a net outflow of 1.886 billion yuan today (with a net inflow of 14.859 billion yuan on the previous trading day).

President Xi Jinping inspected technological innovation work in Beijing, observing representative technological innovation achievements and engaging in friendly exchanges with representatives of researchers and technology company leaders. AI stocks were favored, with MINIMAX (00100.HK) rising 11.7% and KNOWLEDGE ATLAS (02513.HK) soaring 36.2%. Among chip stocks, SMIC (00981.HK) and Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347.HK) rose 4.1% and 3.3%, respectively. Chip developer Lattice Semiconductor (06809.HK) debuted today at 175 yuan, over 63% higher than its issue price of 106.89 yuan, with a turnover of 3.396 billion yuan.

【Net Outflow of Northbound Funds, Tech Stocks Rise】

External tech stocks rebounded, with tech stocks generally rising. Tencent (00700.HK) rose 2.3% to close at 560 yuan, with a turnover of 14.68 billion yuan, Alibaba (09988.HK) rose 1.9% to close at 157.9 yuan, with a turnover of 9.291 billion yuan. NetEase (09999.HK) rose 1.6%, and JD.com (09618.HK) rose 0.9%. Meituan (03690.HK) fell 0.4%. Kuaishou (01024.HK) was fined nearly 120 million yuan by the Beijing Cyberspace Administration, causing its stock price to drop 2.7%.

Citi pointed out that the Beijing Cyberspace Administration imposed a warning and a fine of 119.1 million yuan on Kuaishou for failing to fulfill its cybersecurity protection obligations and not taking timely measures to stop the dissemination and remove inappropriate content from its live streaming business, and ordered it to rectify its business within a specified period Citi believes that the related fines are manageable for Kuaishou, and the rectification requirements have limited (if any) operational impact on its live streaming and e-commerce businesses, indicating that regulatory scrutiny may have come to a close; although there remains some uncertainty in the e-commerce business due to value-added tax and traffic advertising expenditure policies. Given Kuaishou's KuaLing AI has good potential, it maintains a "Buy" rating on Kuaishou with a target price of HKD 95.

【Fifteen hundred stocks rise, financial stocks up】

The Hong Kong stock market has turned strong, with a rise-to-fall ratio of main board stocks at 37 to 15 (compared to 18 to 32 the previous day), with 1,538 rising stocks (up 3.6%). Today, 70 stocks in the Hang Seng Index rose, while 18 fell, with a rise-to-fall ratio of 80 to 20 (compared to 38 to 59 the previous day). The market recorded short selling of HKD 36.796 billion today, accounting for 16.678% of the total turnover of shortable stocks at HKD 220.628 billion (compared to 22.201% the previous day).

Financial stocks performed well, with HSBC (00005.HK) rising 3.3% to HKD 139.3, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (00388.HK) up 2.7%. AIA (01299.HK) increased by 3.4%. Domestic insurance stocks rose, with China Life (02628.HK) closing up nearly 4% at HKD 35.04, Ping An (02318.HK) rising 4.9% to HKD 73, and China Taiping (00966.HK), PICC (01339.HK), and China Property & Casualty (02328.HK) up 3.5% to 4%.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing earlier disclosed that Ping An Insurance Group increased its holdings in China Life by 10.895 million H shares last Monday (2nd), at an average price of HKD 33.2588 per share, totaling approximately HKD 362 million. After the increase, the latest shareholding ratio rose from 9.97% to 10.12%. According to last year's data disclosure, Ping An Insurance Group had previously increased its holdings in China Life by 9.5 million H shares on August 12, 2025, raising its shareholding from 4.91% to 5.04%, reaching the disclosure threshold (triggering the first mandatory disclosure). In the past six months, Ping An Insurance Group's shareholding in China Life has increased from over 5% to 10.12%. Meanwhile, China Life's stock price has risen by 56% over the past six months