The Hang Seng Index closed 0.48% higher, gaining 124.97 points to finish at 26,009.4, with total turnover reaching HKD 255.179 billion. The H-Share Index edged up 0.46% to 8,652.15, while the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.96% to 4,875.61. Market sentiment was boosted by renewed optimism after Trump's announcement of upcoming U.S.-Iran negotiations, marking a positive start to August for Hong Kong stocks, which saw three major indices trend higher throughout the session.
A well-known analyst noted that current conditions represent a strategic window for laying in positions, where the apparent "risk" is actually an "opportunity," particularly for China's hard-core assets. He added that these assets are gradually entering a left-side positioning phase, with a potential autumn rally starting in August, especially for Hong Kong stocks, which may stabilize ahead of overseas markets. Both A-shares and Hong Kong stocks have already released some risk since their early adjustments in mid-May, and the market is now largely confirming a bottom area, transitioning into a phase of shrinking volume, grinding lows, and building momentum.
Blue-chip stock performance
Alibaba-W (09988) stood out among blue chips, closing up 7.01% at HKD 125.2, with turnover of HKD 23.935 billion, contributing 130.61 points to the Hang Seng Index. The company released its Qianwen 3.8-Max model with 2.4 trillion parameters. Benchmark tests indicate its programming and general agent capabilities are comparable to Anthropic Fable5, surpassing it in some metrics, and demonstrating significant autonomous execution in long-range tasks such as chip design, quantitative research, and e-commerce simulation. Among other blue chips, Xinyi Solar (00968) rose 13.41% to HKD 2.495, contributing 2.08 points to the index; New Oriental-S (09901) gained 4.73% to HKD 47.42, adding 2.57 points; while Shenzhou International (02313) fell 3.01% to HKD 43.24, dragging the index down by 1.71 points; and Li Auto-W (02015) declined 2.9% to HKD 51.85, pulling the index down by 3.31 points.
Key sector movements
In terms of sectors, most large tech and internet stocks traded positively, with Alibaba surging over 7%, Baidu up nearly 4%, and Tencent and Kuaishou each gaining over 3%. The "anti-involution" trend continued, with solar stocks remaining strong throughout the day. After China approved eight new nuclear power units, nuclear power concepts were active. AI applications extended their gains, with Xunce surging over 13% after a positive profit alert. Wind power stocks, robot concepts, paper stocks, and commercial aerospace also moved upward. On the downside, memory concepts led the losses, while aluminum, coal, and gaming stocks softened.
Solar stocks maintained strength throughout the session. By the close, Xinyi Solar (00968) jumped 13.41% to HKD 2.495; GCL Technology (03800) rose 11.48% to HKD 0.68; Flat Glass (06865) gained 11.22% to HKD 7.73; and Xinte Energy (01799) increased 8.25% to HKD 4.2. The main contract for polysilicon futures hit the daily limit in the afternoon, settling at RMB 35,890 per ton. On July 31, the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted price compliance guidance for the photovoltaic industry in Yancheng, Jiangsu, implementing central government decisions to deeply rectify "involution" competition and promote a shift from "price competition" to "quality competition" for high-quality development. Earlier, a group standard on cost accounting models for the PV industry, led by the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, was officially released, marking a move toward unified, verifiable cost management across the entire industrial chain.
Nuclear power concepts showed notable performance. By the close, Dongfang Electric (01072) rose 9.29% to HKD 23.52; Shanghai Electric (02727) gained 5.59% to HKD 3.4; and CGN Power (01816) increased 2.77% to HKD 2.97. On July 31, the State Council executive meeting approved eight new nuclear power units across four projects: two units at CNNC's Zhejiang Sanmen Phase II, two at Liaoning Zhuanghe Phase I, two at CGN's Guangdong Taipingling Phase III, and two at SPIC's Shandong Laiyang Phase I. Estimates suggest total investment for these new projects will exceed RMB 170 billion. Among them, Sanmen units 3 and 4 and Taipingling units 5 and 6 will use the "Hualong One" technology fusion plan version 2.0.
AI application stocks continued to climb. By the close, Minglue Technology-W (02718) surged 15.62% to HKD 53; Kingdee International (00268) rose 3.9% to HKD 8.655; and Kuaishou-W (01024) gained 3.02% to HKD 45.02. The recent "software eating the world" thesis is being revised, with the U.S. software index continuing to recover, driving significant gains in AI security and AI infrastructure software stocks. Notably, large model news remains frequent: MiniMax released its next-generation multimodal generation model, MiniMax H3, on July 31; the same day, ByteDance launched its new-generation video creation model, Seedance 2.5. Meanwhile, the official version of DeepSeek-V4-Flash was released and continued to generate buzz over the weekend. Additionally, OpenAI lowered the call pricing for GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-5.6 Luna, significantly reducing the entry barrier.
Memory concepts led the losses. By the close, CSOP Two Times Long SK Hynix (07709) plunged 16.65% to HKD 35.44; Montage Technology (06809) fell 7.51% to HKD 248.8; and GigaDevice (03986) dropped 7.49% to HKD 424.6. On August 3, South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 5.13% at 6,257.41, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics each falling nearly 9%. This followed a record 18% rally on the KOSPI last Friday, where SK Hynix shares rose 30%. Exchange data showed foreign investors were the largest net sellers of KOSPI index constituents on Monday morning, while retail investors bought, and local funds also sold. Furthermore, a recent strategy report from Guojin Securities suggested that, from a chip-clearing perspective, domestic AI chain clearing signals are weaker than overseas, making the rebound more of a "post-crash repair."
Notable stock movements
Angelalign (06699) surged on a gap up. By the close, it rose 17.96% to HKD 94.25. The company announced that for the first half of 2026, it expects total revenue of approximately USD 229 million to USD 231 million, up 41.9% to 43.1% year-over-year, and net profit of approximately USD 24 million to USD 25.4 million, up 69.0% to 78.9%. Total clear aligner cases reached approximately 316,600, a 40.2% increase year-over-year.
Xunce (03317) performed strongly, closing up 13.53% at HKD 117.5. The company expects first-half revenue to reach RMB 967 million, a massive 389% surge year-over-year, setting a new record for the period. Net profit attributable to shareholders is expected to be RMB 72.51 million, with adjusted net profit of RMB 67 million, both turning profitable. The strong performance is mainly attributed to the concentrated release of enterprise AI demand, accelerated cross-industry business expansion, and new revenue from TokenOS deployment and increased Token call volumes.
Legend Holdings (03396) issued a positive profit alert, closing up 10.56% at HKD 14.55. The company expects net profit attributable to equity holders for the first half of the year to be no less than RMB 2 billion, representing an increase of no less than 186% compared to the same period last year. This expected growth is mainly due to the recovery of the capital market, turning the investment business in its incubation and investment segment back to profitability.
MINIMAX-W (00100) climbed again, closing up 7.2% at HKD 247.2. The MiniMax H3 model has been officially open-sourced. It is a general-purpose multimodal generation system capable of unified understanding of multimodal contexts composed of text, images, video, and audio, and can generate video up to 2K resolution, up to 15 seconds long, with native stereo audio.
IFBH (06603) hit a new low, closing down 15.42% at HKD 5.21. The company issued a profit warning, forecasting a 65% to 75% year-over-year plunge in net profit for the first half of 2026, with revenue declining 40% to 50%. The company attributed the main reasons to geopolitical tensions and weak consumer sentiment across the entire category.
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