Today marked the Hong Kong market's futures settlement day, with a wave of buying emerging in the afternoon session indicating dominant bullish sentiment, closing up 0.86%. A spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will pay a state visit to China from January 4 to 7, 2026. From the easing of tensions on the Thai-Cambodian border to the upcoming visit from South Korea, the Asia-Pacific region remains stable. Capital inflows boosted the exchange rate; on December 30, the onshore yuan broke through the 7.0 mark against the US dollar, touching a high of 6.9960, a gain of 0.1%, reaching its highest level since May 17, 2023. This was primarily supported by foreign capital inflows, expectations for economic recovery, and optimism towards the technology sector. As the exchange rate strengthened, the stock market followed suit. Regarding the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army's "Righteous Mission-2025" exercise, former US President Trump told reporters in Florida that he is not worried about the situation around the Taiwan Strait, emphasizing his good relationship with China and expressing belief that China will not take military action against Taiwan. This statement is quite clear: the US is retracting to North America, leaving it with little capacity to manage the Asia-Pacific, focusing its attention instead on its own backyard. On December 30 local time, media cited informed sources stating that due to pressure and blockades from the Trump administration, Venezuela's state-owned refineries are facing exhausted storage capacity and continuously accumulating inventories; the country's state oil company PDVSA began shutting down some domestic oil wells on December 28. This is bound to trigger concerns over tight oil supply. Consequently, CNOOC (00883), Shanghai Petrochemical (00338), and PetroChina (00857) all rose by 3%. The big four state-owned banks also rebounded collectively. China Merchants Bank (03968), which announced an interim dividend of 1.013 yuan per share for the first half of 2025, gained 1.63% today. These sectors provided a supportive base effect.
The market's focus remained concentrated on the technology sector. SMIC (688981.SH) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, SMIC Holding, entered into a new joint venture contract and a capital increase agreement with the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and its second phase to amend the previous joint venture contract. Accordingly, the registered capital of SMIC South will increase from $6.5 billion to $10.0773 billion. This capital increase signals confidence in future prospects. Simultaneously, the listed company plans to issue shares to five shareholders of SMIC North, including the National Integrated Circuit Fund, to acquire their 49% equity stake in SMIC North for a transaction price of 40.601 billion yuan. Upon completion, the listed company's stake in SMIC North will rise from 51% to 100%, indicating an acceleration of the acquisition process. The stock rose over 4% today. Huahong Semiconductor (01347) also gained nearly 4%. Separate reports suggested that Baidu plans to spin off its non-wholly-owned subsidiary, Kunlun Xin (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., for an independent listing. If its chip company can list, its valuation is expected to be re-rated; Baidu Group-SW (09888) surged nearly 9% today.
Positive developments emerged for robotics: firstly, the Trump administration is reportedly considering issuing an executive order on robotics in 2026; secondly, rumors indicate that suppliers have recently been visiting North America, with Tesla's Optimus project nearing the contract award stage, prompting market anticipation. Beneficiary supplier Sanhua Intelligent Controls (02050), which repurchased 1.0271 million A-shares for 49.936 million yuan on December 29, surged over 12% today. Yesterday's mentioned stock, Yuejiang (02432), which pledged not to reduce holdings, announced further positive news: it has decided to initiate an initial public offering of ordinary A-shares and a listing plan on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The board has resolved and approved commencing work related to the proposed A-share listing. As the "first collaborative robot stock," with a global deployment scale exceeding 100,000 units and achieving mass production applications in the humanoid robot field, its stock surged over 13% today. Following suit, Ubtech (09880) announced that its founder, Chairman, and CEO Zhou Jian pledged not to reduce his personal holdings of 70.57435 million H-shares in any form for 12 months starting December 29, 2025. The stock rose over 8% today. According to a post on Lens Technology's (06613) official WeChat account, the company will debut a high-degree-of-freedom dexterous hand and head assembly for humanoid robots at the CES 2026 exhibition. Its stock gained over 5%. Another stock, Innoscience (02577), whose gallium nitride products cater to both AI data centers and robotics scenarios, surged over 15%.
AI-related news was also explosive. Just before the arrival of 2026, Meta officially announced the acquisition of AI agent company Manus. Reports suggest the acquisition amount could be as high as tens of billions of dollars, potentially becoming Meta's third-largest acquisition after WhatsApp and Scale AI. The commercial inflection point for AI Agents is expected to arrive with the emergence of general-purpose products, with the long-term market potential far from being fully realized. Related stock Maifushi (02556) officially released its self-developed AI-Agentforce intelligent agent platform version 3.0 and announced deep strategic collaborations with tech giants including Baidu Group, Alibaba Cloud, Muxi Co., Ltd., OpenText, Beilian Guoxin, and Ant Group's OceanBase. The stock surged over 11% today; Fourth Paradigm (06682) rose over 7% from its bottom. Beijing Knowlegraph Technology Co., Ltd. (02513) began its IPO subscription today, expected to conclude on January 5, 2026, with a planned listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026. Boosted by the large model concept, SENSETIME-W (00020), which completed a placement of 1.75 billion shares raising HK$3.146 billion net, rose over 2% today.
Amid the strengthening currency, resource stocks continued their upward trend. Despite negative news – Ganfeng Lithium (002460.SZ) announced receiving a notice of transfer for prosecution from the Yichun Public Security Bureau on December 29, 2025, stating that the case, involving suspected unit crime of insider trading, has been transferred to the procuratorate for review – this pertains to past events and does not significantly impact the broader picture. Aluminum Corporation of China (02600), Tianqi Lithium (09696), China Molybdenum (03993), and others all gained over 4%. Nickel-related stock Zhongwei New Materials (02579) rose nearly 7%. Xiaomi (01810) founder Lei Jun announced a live New Year's Eve broadcast at 8 PM on December 31, where engineers will disassemble and explain the Xiaomi YU7 car live. Recent negative factors, such as share reductions, have caused some turbulence; this broadcast is expected to help restore market confidence. The stock rose over 2% today.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is set to kick off next week in Las Vegas. This year's event will focus on showcasing hardware products like AI smart glasses, humanoid robots, and wearable devices. Over the years, leveraging technological innovation and a robust supply chain, Chinese brands have become the dominant force at CES. At CES 2025 earlier this year, Chinese exhibitors still accounted for a high proportion of 30%. Key listed companies to watch participating in the exhibition include Lens Technology (06613), Hesai-W (02525), Suteng Juchuang (02498), TCL Electronics (01070), and Xiaomi Group-W (01810); others include Q Technology (01478), Sunny Optical (02382), and AAC Technologies (02018).
SANY INT'L (00631): Export Volumes Remain High, Overseas Business Sees Steady Growth Recently, the first batch of SANY Heavy Equipment's SRT100S mining trucks officially commenced their journey. The company reported Q3 2025 revenue of 5.910 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. Net profit for the same period was approximately 406 million yuan, up 14.1% year-on-year. Commentary: The delivery of this batch of equipment marks a key step in SANY Heavy Equipment's strategy for the intellectualization and high-end development of mining machinery. The company's profit growth in the third quarter was primarily driven by large port machinery, oil and gas equipment, overseas mining trucks, and other emerging businesses, reflecting significant progress in its diversified business layout and internationalization strategy. Export volumes remain at high levels. Leading construction machinery companies continue to see steady growth in overseas markets, with the proportion of overseas sales approaching or exceeding 50%. The acquisition of the lithium energy business completed on July 22, 2024, provides a new revenue stream. The comprehensive implementation of digital and intelligent operations, along with measures for quality improvement, efficiency enhancement, cost reduction, and expense control, has improved the gross profit margins of roadheaders, small port machinery, large port machinery, oil and gas equipment, and silicon energy products. The company is being driven by stable demand for roadheaders, strong growth in large port equipment, and better-than-expected performance of domestic mining trucks. Products like large port machinery, small port machinery, mining trucks, coal miners, and roadheaders are sold to countries and regions in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Looking ahead, the company has clear overseas strategic plans for 2025, with corresponding export products being highly competitive. Highlight products like rigid mining trucks and telescopic handlers are expected to further expand market space and achieve rapid growth in overseas business. The company's overseas business growth is sustainable, while domestic coal mining equipment demand is expected to gradually stabilize. With the arrival of the traditional peak sales season, overall domestic excavator sales in Q4 are expected to remain steady.
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