Both markets diverged again today. The A-share market continued to stabilize on the back of higher volumes in some broad-based indices, while Hong Kong equities gapped lower, with the Hang Seng Index closing down 1.32%.
At the opening ceremony of the 2026 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting, People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said the central bank will work with the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the China Securities Regulatory Commission to introduce a large-scale redemption liquidity support tool for non-bank institutions. Simply put, when non-bank institutions such as funds, brokerages and wealth management companies face concentrated large redemptions, they can pledge high-quality assets such as bonds to the central bank for temporary cash to meet redemptions, preventing a stampede-style selloff and avoiding a liquidity collapse in stock and bond markets. This is a backstop-style preventive measure, not a stimulus for stocks. In addition, the central bank made clear it will study switching the maturity of its main open market operations to overnight at an appropriate time, though the timing remains uncertain and the benefit is still at the expectation level. Overall, Hong Kong stocks were relatively disappointed by these so-called positives, with securities and insurance names falling today, including New China Life Insurance (01336) down nearly 6%, while bank stocks also broadly declined.
Tech stocks have yet to stop falling. Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People's Bank of China, said on October 20 at the 2026 Bund Summit roundtable on "AI and the Productivity Revolution: Macro Shocks Under Technological Leaps" that research should be conducted and contingency plans prepared to address financial risks that may arise from failed AI-related investments, and this view deserves attention. Many overseas global hedge funds are beginning to doubt whether the artificial intelligence investment boom can continue. According to Goldman Sachs trading desk data, hedge funds cut technology stock positions at the fastest pace in at least a decade during the five trading sessions through October 15. U.S. premarket trading was also messy, with memory chip stocks broadly lower: SK Hynix fell about 4%, Western Digital about 2%, SanDisk about 2%, Micron Technology about 2%, and Seagate Technology about 2%. In sharp contrast, Apple, with its "light AI" narrative, bucked the trend and rose, with total market capitalization surpassing $5 trillion for the first time and approaching Nvidia's position as the world's most valuable company.
The international environment is also deteriorating. France, Europe's pioneer, is in trouble again: nationwide anti-government protests escalated into riots and looting over the weekend, and French authorities imposed curfews in parts of multiple cities including Paris, Lille and Nice. Although the trigger was merely campus protests, it ultimately evolved into major unrest. The root cause is that France's finances can no longer hold up, with debt to GDP reaching 119%, nearly double the 60% reference value set by the Treaty on European Union, while sharp cuts to various welfare benefits have stirred widespread discontent. After the French riots, protest crowds also appeared in Madrid, Rome, Brussels and Lisbon. Local wars are still ongoing and various blowbacks are emerging, so it would be false to say capital markets are not nervous.
Of course, capital markets are also working hard to find opportunities. Robots are indeed a major future direction, and giants are entering the field. OpenAI is laying out a humanoid robot R&D track, will make robot intelligence system research a core focus, and has begun recruiting talent on its official website. According to Altman's forecast, OpenAI is expected to launch an impressive demonstration prototype in 2027, but it will still take years for humanoid robots to truly enter public practical use. Tesla says it is building the first Optimus production line and expanding data center capacity for AI training; China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it will use humanoid robots as a small entry point to drive the development of the broader embodied intelligence industry, noting that China's humanoid robot output reached 40,000+ units in the first half of 2026 and is expected to exceed 100,000 units for the full year. The direction that has heated up strongly is Physical AI, because this is an unavoidable path. Hong Kong's "first Physical AI stock," 51WORLD (06651), recently disclosed that revenue from its Physical AI business grew more than 500% year on year; embodied intelligence-related products received 20,000 intended orders just two days after launch, and total orders exceeded 200 million yuan within a month of release, making it viewed by the market as a scarce Physical AI infrastructure target in Hong Kong, with shares up more than 22% today. HESAI-W (02525) officially launched the three-dimensional world data engine Kosmo, along with the AI spatial camera Kosmo One and cloud platform Kosmo World, extending from automotive lidar to Physical AI data infrastructure and seeking a second growth curve, with shares up more than 10%. Humanoid robot complete-machine target UBTECH ROBOTICS (09880), warehouse AMR leader Geekplus-W (02590), SEER Intelligent (06106), which focuses on mobile robot controllers and robot brains, and Sanhua Intelligent Controls (02050), which mainly makes valves, thermal management and actuator components, all rose 6%.
The State Council Information Office held a press conference today, October 20. It was noted that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of next-generation intelligent manufacturing. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it is studying and drafting relevant policy measures for next-generation intelligent manufacturing to accelerate deep integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing. In essence, this is AI+. For example, AI glasses player Conant Optical (02276) rose more than 4%; TCL Electronics (01070) rose more than 6% after forecasting a 45% to 55% increase in net profit for the first three quarters; Butong Group (06090), whose main business is AI parenting products, is extending its business by using Physical AI as a connection point to expand from indoor home scenarios to broader living spaces such as mobile cabins and home robots, with shares up nearly 11%; Meig Smart (03268) rose nearly 8% after launching its MT200 industrial AI BOX solution connected to Qualcomm's IQ10 platform, which has peak computing power of 700 TOPS and mainly targets robots and industrial automation. On October 23, the 2026 Kingdee Global Insight Conference will be held in Beijing. With the theme "Let Every Enterprise Become an AI-Native Organization," the conference will unfold along three main lines: AI management philosophy, AI management technology and AI management practice, focusing on improving work efficiency, decision-making capability and operational wisdom. The company's AI-native product contract value in the first three quarters reached 1.002 billion yuan, while third-quarter ARR rose 19.3% year on year and net new ARR rose 46.9% year on year, with shares up nearly 7%.
There was also considerable stimulus in innovative drugs. Roche once again signed a major agreement with Hansoh Pharmaceutical (03691), with potential milestone payments of up to $15 billion. The latest agreement covers a broad ADC project portfolio, including two ADC candidates already in preclinical development and multiple projects developed using Hansoh's ADC technology against targets proposed by Roche, with shares up more than 8%. LEPU BIOPHARMA (02157), focused on tumor treatment and ADC development, and KeyMed Bio (02162) jointly developed the ADC candidate CMG901, whose positive global Phase III results were selected as a heavy-hitting ESMO research abstract and will be reported at a presidential symposium. LEPU BIOPHARMA (02157) rose more than 10%, and KeyMed Bio (02162) rose more than 5%. A number of other names also advanced.
Sector Focus
Today, Oracle announced a non-binding agreement with AstraZeneca to explore the use of artificial intelligence and real-world data to identify patients eligible for clinical trials, accelerate medical evidence generation, and integrate related research outcomes into routine diagnosis and treatment processes. It is understood that the collaboration is expected to combine AstraZeneca's scientific and therapeutic expertise with Oracle's capabilities in health data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, analytics and clinical workflows. This news undoubtedly gave a new boost to AI pharmaceutical concept stocks, with key names including Insilico Medicine (03696), XtalPi Holdings (02228), Jitai Technology-P (07666) and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group (01093), which has cooperation with AstraZeneca.
Stock Spotlight
HUTCHMED (00013): Overseas orders are growing strongly and the innovative pipeline continues to deliver. The 2026 ESMO meeting will be held from October 23 to 27 local time in Madrid, Spain. The ESMO official website released more than 90 LBA titles, of which 12 LBA studies with the most breakthrough significance and the greatest potential to change clinical practice will be presented at the ESMO plenary session. HUTCHMED's two Phase III lung cancer studies of savolitinib plus osimertinib were both selected as LBA breakthrough abstracts and oral presentations. Comment: At this ESMO, the company will disclose complete OS/PFS curves, subgroup data, detailed safety data and quality of life scores; the key focus will be savolitinib, from HUTCHMED, plus osimertinib, from AstraZeneca, compared with chemotherapy in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer after osimertinib resistance with MET overexpression/amplification. If the data are strong, this will bring a catalyst. The company is one of the few domestic oncology drug platforms with full-chain independent innovation. All four of its self-developed Class 1 anti-tumor drugs have been approved in China, and fruquintinib has successfully entered Europe, the United States and Japan, making it one of the earliest domestically developed targeted drugs to achieve global commercialization. Its flagship product fruquintinib, Elunate, is a domestic benchmark and has been approved in 38 countries worldwide, with overseas sales handled by Takeda; newly added indications for renal cancer and endometrial cancer have been included in medical insurance, and the domestic business has returned to a growth track, while overseas sales are the company's largest source of revenue. The pipeline continues to deliver: savolitinib, Orpathys, China's first MET inhibitor, added a gastric cancer indication; newly approved fanregratinib, Ailinda, fills a gap in FGFR2 fusion treatment for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; and the immunotherapy pipeline candidate sopacitanib is advancing toward a marketing application. Overseas orders are growing strongly. Fruquintinib's overseas authorization to Takeda is an overseas commercialization sales agreement under which Takeda is responsible for sales in markets such as the United States, Europe and Japan, with sales-based royalties plus milestone payments, and continued volume growth in multiple overseas countries makes this a sustainable sales order. Large BD milestone income provides elasticity: under the GSK collaboration for the ATTC platform candidate HMPL-A830, future tiered milestones for clinical progress, approval and sales will continue to bring cash inflows and enhance R&D funding. The company's next expectation is the global Phase III SAFFRON study: AstraZeneca will submit marketing applications to the FDA and EMA, NDA/MAA. SAFFRON is a global multicenter study, and after ESMO publishes the complete OS, subgroup and safety data, AstraZeneca will advance global filings based on this dataset.
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