Hang Seng Index Edges Up Slightly, Six New Listings with Only One Trading Below IPO Price

On the morning of December 30, the Hong Kong stock market opened with a slight gain. At the time of writing, the Hang Seng Index was at 25,645.38 points, up 10.15 points or 0.04%. The Hang Seng Tech Index was at 5,525.52 points, up 42.51 points or 0.78%.

In the IPO sector, six new stocks collectively debuted today. At the time of writing, only one company was trading slightly below its issue price. Among them, Meilian Shares (HK02671) traded at HKD 10, up 40.85%; Lin Qingxuan (HK02657) traded at HKD 90.90, up 16.88%; Wuyi Shijie (HK06651) traded at HKD 38.30, up 25.57%; IngSi Intelligent (HK03696) traded at HKD 32.50, up 35.14%; and Woan Robot (HK06600) traded at HKD 74.1, up 0.41%.

Additionally, Xunce (HK03317) briefly traded below its issue price, hitting a low of HKD 38.02, before quickly recovering to hover around its IPO price of HKD 48.

In other market movements, technology stocks were mixed. Baidu rose over 5%, JD.com gained over 1%, while Tencent, Alibaba, and NetEase saw modest increases. Semiconductor stocks opened higher, with Innoscience leading the pack with a surge of over 11%. Automobile stocks continued their strength, with Nio rising over 5%.

Gold stocks generally declined, with Zijin Mining International falling over 2%. Non-ferrous metal stocks retreated overall; Jiangxi Copper shares dropped over 2%, and Ganfeng Lithium fell over 3%. Furthermore, Pop Mart declined over 2%.

On the news front, reports indicated that some Labubu styles were trading below their original retail price on secondary market platforms.

Looking ahead, Guohai Franklin Fund believes that, compared to A-shares, Hong Kong-listed bank stocks offer more substantial support. Despite facing net interest margin pressure, the overall risk in China's banking sector is controllable, with major banks demonstrating robust operations.

Given the lower valuations of Hong Kong-listed bank stocks and their role as a key channel for mainland insurance capital to allocate high-dividend assets, they are expected to attract sustained incremental fund inflows. Regarding specific allocation strategies, valuations can be appropriately relaxed for banks with outstanding growth potential and superior asset quality; for turnaround plays, however, the price-to-book ratio must be sufficiently low, with visible signs of earnings improvement.