On May 18th, the Hong Kong stock market witnessed a net outflow of HK$7.876 billion from northbound capital. Specifically, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect recorded a net outflow of HK$1.962 billion, while the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect saw a net outflow of HK$5.914 billion. The stocks that received the highest net purchases from northbound capital were China Life Insurance Company Limited (02628), Li Auto Inc. (02015), and Tencent Holdings Limited (00700). Conversely, the stocks with the highest net sales were the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong (02800), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (09988), and Hua Hong Semiconductor Limited (01347).
Among the actively traded stocks on the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, China Life Insurance Company Limited (02628) attracted a net purchase of HK$1.344 billion. According to information disclosed on the Hong Kong Exchange's platform, Ping An Asset Management and Ping An Life Insurance increased their holdings in China Life by 12.9 million and 14.38 million shares on May 6th and May 11th, respectively, with transaction amounts reaching HK$383 million and HK$453 million. Post-transaction, their holdings in China Life's H-shares reached 13.1% and 13.12% of the total H-share capital, each increasing by 0.2 percentage points, demonstrating a firm strategic confidence in the sector and peer companies.
Li Auto Inc. (02015) received a net purchase of HK$764 million. The company recently held a launch event for its new-generation L9 Ultra and L9 Livis models. Morgan Stanley believes that, as the first major launch this year, the L9 is crucial for regaining sales momentum and paves the way for more new product releases in the second half of the year. The firm expects the monthly sales of the new L9 to exceed last year's average, which should support the group's profit margins and short-term stock performance.
Tencent Holdings Limited (00700) garnered a net purchase of HK$548 million. Following Tencent's first-quarter results, Citigroup held an investor meeting with the company's management. Management expressed optimism about the company's AI progress and confidence in the improved performance of the Hunyuan 3.0 model. As domestic chip foundry capacity gradually slows, chip deliveries are expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, driving an increase in capital expenditure during that period.
Semiconductor stocks showed mixed performance. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981), GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc. (03986), and Montage Technology Co., Ltd. (06809) received net purchases of HK$218 million, HK$74.5 million, and HK$71.12 million, respectively. In contrast, Hua Hong Semiconductor Limited (01347) faced a net sale of HK$120 million. ChangXin Memory Technologies reported first-quarter revenue of RMB 50.8 billion and a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 24.8 billion. The company forecasts a net profit attributable to shareholders between RMB 50 billion and RMB 57 billion for the first half of the year. China Merchants Securities noted that memory products are gradually shifting towards customization, with AI inference driving the development of new products like HBM to fill the performance gap between DRAM and SSDs. This also imposes higher requirements on advanced packaging. As the penetration rate of customized memory products increases and orders overflow from ChangXin's capacity expansion, segments like packaging and testing are expected to continue benefiting.
51WORLD (06651) received a net purchase of HK$67.58 million. Recently, Justin Sun, founder of the TRON network and a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency space, stated publicly that the development of general AI is nearing its end, and the next breakthrough in the AI industry lies not in virtual scenarios but in real-world physical applications—"Physical AI will become the most valuable super trend of the next decade." 51WORLD is recognized as a pioneer and leader in the field of Physical AI.
Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (06869) attracted a net purchase of HK$15.46 million. Huatai Securities research points out that optical fiber prices showed a month-on-month upward trend in the first quarter of 2026, with the company's delivery structure still including some low-priced long-term/centralized procurement orders during the reporting period. As higher-priced orders are concentrated for recognition starting from the second quarter, the firm is optimistic about an accelerated release of profit elasticity. Driven by both the rising景气度 of the core optical fiber and cable business and diversified operations such as optical interconnect components, the company's performance is expected to see significant improvement.
The Tracker Fund of Hong Kong (02800) experienced a substantial net sale of HK$5.302 billion. Huatai Securities notes that the Hong Kong stock market currently faces two major external challenges. On one hand, the impact of oil supply shocks is approaching a critical point of concentrated release; on the other hand, inflation expectations are pushing up global government bond yields, and monetary policy has limitations in addressing supply shocks. Internally, the positioning of southbound capital still needs to be cleared.
Additionally, Radiance Holdings (Group) Company Limited (09993) and CNOOC Limited (00883) received net purchases of HK$57.06 million and HK$23.71 million, respectively. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (09988) faced a net sale of HK$1.341 billion.
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