As technology stocks advanced, Hong Kong's market moved in the opposite direction, declining due to its internal structure rather than a weak overall outlook. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.60% today. With the US running out of effective options against Iran, it has resorted to soliciting innovative, unconventional pressure tactics from within the military. President Trump escalated threats again on Monday, stating that if Iran does not agree to a deal to end the conflict, it will face "decapitation." He claimed Tehran has only one last chance to reach an agreement, possibly indicating that the location of minor leader Khamenei has been identified. Iran is likely taking this seriously, with recent reports suggesting a deal between the US and Iran is close. While deleveraging in Korean stocks seemed incomplete yesterday, signs of a bottom are emerging today. "Cooling" measures are taking effect, with trading volumes for Korean semiconductor leveraged ETFs noticeably shrinking. The KODEX SK Hynix leveraged ETF saw its Monday trading volume drop to 59 million shares, the lowest since June 4. Another, smaller ETF linked to Samsung Electronics also hit a record low in volume since its launch in late May. As deleveraging nears its end, technology stocks appear to have bottomed out, making today's tech rebound logical. This has caused funds previously concentrated in banking to loosen, leading to a collective weakness in bank stocks today. China Construction Bank (00939), ICBC (01398), and Agricultural Bank of China (01288) all fell over 3%. Insurance and securities sectors also adjusted, directly pulling the Hang Seng Index lower. The market's rebound continues to follow US stock trends. If Anthropic once saved US stocks, now it's the cloud sector's turn. Cloud earnings are genuinely impressive: Google Cloud revenue hit approximately $24.8 billion, up 82% year-over-year; Microsoft Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 43%; and Amazon AWS revenue reached $42.2 billion, a 37% increase. Google Cloud led in revenue growth this quarter, followed by Azure and AWS, with all three accelerating from the previous quarter. The counterpart in Hong Kong is Kingsoft Cloud (03896), which boasts a strong order backlog. It forecasts 2026-2027 revenue growth of 35% and 34% year-over-year, with AI public cloud revenue growing 83% and 65%. Revenue from the Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem provides a high-certainty foundation, reaching ¥840 million in Q1 2026, a 68.9% year-over-year surge, accounting for about 31% of total revenue. Its shares surged over 14% today.
Another notable is Palantir, which achieved an adjusted operating margin of 62% and free cash flow exceeding $1.2 billion. The company raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $8.15-$8.158 billion and its US commercial revenue forecast to $3.424 billion. A comparable stock in Hong Kong is Xunce (03317), which expects H1 revenue of ¥967 million, a massive 389% year-over-year increase, setting a new record. Its net profit attributable to parent is ¥72.51 million, with adjusted net profit of ¥67 million, marking a significant turnaround from last year's loss. This is primarily driven by new revenue from TokenOS deployments and increased Token call volume. In H1, Token model revenue accounted for over 10% of total, and Token ARR grew 410% quarter-over-quarter in June, indicating faster-than-expected commercialization. Its stock surged over 18% today. As large model Agent and Coding capabilities rapidly advance, PCBs are evolving towards higher density and performance. Products with more layers, higher orders, and advanced materials offer greater technical difficulty, consume more capacity, and have rising value. The accelerated rollout of orthogonal backplanes, mSAP, and CoWoP will further expand the PCB market. Most PCB industry leaders reported strong growth in their interim earnings forecasts, confirming the sector's logic. The entire PCB chain is expected to raise prices, starting with equipment makers. 芯碁微装 (09630) surged over 22%, while 大族数控 (03200), 广合科技 (01989), and 鼎泰高科 (01377) all rose over 13%. TrendForce reports that due to DRAM shortages and uncertainties in HBM4e verification, NVIDIA is evaluating multiple lower HBM specifications (including HBM4e 8hi and HBM4 12hi) for Rubin Ultra, but no final decision has been made. This means clusters will need more high-speed interconnects (NPO/NVL) between GPUs to compensate for insufficient single-card memory, boosting demand for optical interconnects, high-speed PCBs, connectors, memory interfaces, and high-speed SSDs. The logic for optical communications is strengthening, with leading stock 中际旭创 (03308) jumping 17%, 剑桥科技 (06166) surging nearly 20%, and 长飞光纤 (06869) rising over 10%. Other tech stocks also performed actively. Iluvatar Corex (09903), a leading Chinese general-purpose GPU and AI computing provider, saw its 2025 GPU product revenue reach ¥923 million, a 149.6% year-over-year increase, accounting for 89.3% of total revenue. It completed adaptation support for the open-source MiniMax H3 model on the same day of its release, driving its stock up nearly 12%. In the computing power sector, 华勤技术 (03296) reported stronger-than-expected preliminary Q2 results. Institutions expect its data center business to become a major earnings catalyst from H2 2026 as cabinet-level AI projects enter mass production, with its shares rising over 6% today. CXO leader WuXi AppTec (02359) delivered stellar results: H1 revenue reached ¥28.897 billion, a 38.93% year-over-year increase, with Q2 revenue hitting ¥16.462 billion, a 47.71% surge and a new single-quarter high. All three major business segments achieved double-digit growth. The company also raised its full-year 2026 revenue target from ¥51.3-53.0 billion to ¥58.5-60.5 billion and its ongoing business revenue growth target from 18%-22% to 35%-39%. Capital expenditure guidance was also raised from ¥6.5-7.5 billion to ¥7.5-8.5 billion. Its stock surged over 11%, directly boosting Genscript (01548) by over 11%, and driving Pharmaron (03759), 凯莱英 (06821), and WuXi XDC (02268) up over 6%. The "shovel seller," Zhitong's August gold stock 百奥赛图 (02315), also benefited directly after being increased by Fubon Fund for 556,500 shares at approximately HK$51.81 per share, surging nearly 10% today.
Sector Focus
On August 4, Citadel Securities predicted that by 2028, tech companies will raise over $500 billion in debt financing across public and private markets to fund chips for AI campus construction. Jeff Eason, chief analyst at Citadel's investment-grade bond division, expects most bonds to have short maturities of three to five years, matching chip lifespans, with some issued as 144A private placements. On August 4, it was reported that Shenyang Zhengxin Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. recently underwent industrial and commercial changes, adding Phase III of the National Big Fund's 国投集新 and 金石成长 as shareholders, while registered capital increased from ¥100,000 to approximately ¥11.34 million. As the cornerstone of AI, chips will continue to attract capital. Key Hong Kong stocks include Hua Hong Grace (01347), SMIC (00981), and ASMPT (00522).
Stock Deep Dive
Estun (02715): Industrial Robot Market Share Continues to Rise; Strong Interim Forecast Boosts Confidence. The company expects H1 net profit attributable to parent of ¥150-180 million, a 21-fold year-over-year increase, driven by product mix optimization and cost-efficiency improvements significantly boosting gross margins. Its intelligent factory in Nanjing, where heavy-duty and assembly robots collaborate to precisely assemble a robot base in just 20 minutes, is called "ESTUN." Its performance improvement stems from a high-quality development strategy and gains from the asset restructuring of its investee companies. As industrial robot demand picks up, Estun ranked first in domestic market share for Q1 industrial robot shipments, with rising profitability and Q1 net profit exceeding the full 2025 figure, while gross margins increased 7.52% year-over-year. Overseas business grew significantly, with Europe as the core engine. European and Southeast Asian markets sustained high growth in early 2026. Overseas gross margins exceed 30%, significantly higher than domestic, making them a key profit driver for the next 2-3 years. The company's industrial robot market share is steadily rising, with production continuing to surge. In 2025, it shipped 33,400 units, capturing a 10.6% market share, surpassing the foreign "Big Four" (Fanuc, Yaskawa, etc.) for the first time and remaining domestic leader for eight consecutive years. It has entered the global top-tier auto parts supplier list. Its order backlog is strong, with latest data (Feb-Mar 2026) showing orders of approximately ¥8.5 billion, up 67% year-over-year, including 50% growth in robot orders, sustaining high demand with stable order quality. Key downstream sectors include automotive (including NEVs), 3C, and solar/batteries, accounting for over 70% of orders. Major contracts include a ¥1.2 billion robot order from BYD (delivery through Q1 2026) and overseas single projects worth over ¥80 million, with expected orders of ¥150 million in 2026. Capacity utilization is above 90%, with orders scheduled through Q2-Q3 2026, and heavy-duty models facing longer lead times due to full capacity. Its globalization is taking shape with an A+H listing (March 2026 in Hong Kong), making it the first domestic industrial robot company with a dual listing. Acquisitions include Germany's Cloos (welding) and UK's TRIO (motion control), with European/Polish factories serving 75 countries. Estun has full supply chain self-sufficiency, with 95% of core components self-developed, including its iER.OS intelligent ecosystem and Juliet robot language. Its collaborative robots (酷卓) are scaling rapidly, covering 107+ scenarios with fast expansion in electronics, lithium batteries, and healthcare. The 1,200 kg heavy-duty robot features 100% domestically produced core components, earning a national first-set certification. With a rising share of collaborative robots and strong overseas business, orders are full, and gross margins significantly higher than domestic (about 10 percentage points difference), this segment is a key source of future profit flexibility. The robot sector is recovering, and Estun's strong interim earnings forecast is boosting confidence.
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