The continuously rising A-share market finally experienced a correction, while the Hong Kong market showed strong catch-up momentum today, opening with a gap up. However, after approaching the 27,000-point level, it began to retreat, closing up 0.90%. Trading volume continued to expand, reaching HKD 315.2 billion. The recent surge in A-shares has significantly impacted the Hong Kong market, with the AI sector booming and large funds finally targeting major stocks. According to the latest statistics from the global AI open-source community Hugging Face, as of January 2026, the cumulative downloads of Alibaba Cloud's Tongyi Qianwen series models have exceeded 700 million, making it the most downloaded open-source AI series on the platform. The data shows that in December 2025 alone, the download volume of this series surpassed the combined total of the models ranked second to eighth. Alibaba (09988) surged over 6% at one point, while Tencent (00700) also rose over 4%. Due to the substantial gap-up opening, some pullback occurred later. The Hang Seng Index hesitated to maintain strong upward momentum due to persistent concerns. On the 12th local time, the U.S. Department of State issued information on its website urging American citizens to leave Iran immediately, suggesting potential follow-up actions. Gold made another strong appearance, with several stocks hitting record highs. For instance, China Gold International (02099) surged over 7%, reaching a new all-time high. Zhitong's January gold stock pick—Zijin Gold International (02259)—also rose over 5%, similarly hitting a new high since its listing. Other stocks reaching new highs included Zijin Mining Group (02899) and Zhaojin Mining Industry (01818). Former President Trump stated he would impose an additional 25% tariff on Iran's commercial partners. In response, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its clear stance: there are no winners in a tariff war. China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. The recently strong AI sector underwent a correction. However, the concentrated listings of several domestic AI large model companies in Hong Kong recently, such as MiniMax (00100) and Knowledge Atlas (02513), sparked market enthusiasm. The newly listed GigaDevice (03986) also surged over 40% today, indicating strong investor interest in high-tech companies within the Hong Kong market. The commercial aerospace sector also faced pressure. On the evening of January 12th, more than ten companies, including some leading stocks, issued risk warnings, emphasizing that their commercial aerospace business contributions are extremely low (mostly <1%), lack substantial performance support, with some companies clarifying they have no related businesses. This clearly also reflected regulatory intentions to cool the sector, with Goldwind Science & Technology (02208) falling nearly 10%. However, Junda Technology (02865), associated with the space-based photovoltaic concept, surged nearly 10% in the afternoon before retreating with the broader market, primarily due to negative news: its controlling shareholder, Jindi Technology, plans to reduce its holding by no more than approximately 8.7254 million shares. Actually, this reduction amount is not large, only over HKD 20 million, with the impact being more emotional. It ultimately closed with a slight gain of over 1%. Overall, the commercial aerospace theme is unlikely to fade quickly and may present opportunities after the adjustment.
The market reignited interest in innovative drugs today. With the "drug king" Keytruda's patent expiring in 2028, Merck's "acquisition hand" appears impatient. The latest comments from its CEO suggest Merck is highly likely to adopt the simplest and most direct approach—aggressively acquiring—to strengthen its innovative drug/biotech pipeline before Keytruda's patent officially expires. This is positive news for Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, materials from a keynote speech by WuXi Biologics (02269) CEO Chen Zhisheng at the 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference indicated the group's business continued its rapid growth in 2025. Recently, the upfront and total payment amounts for research services hit new record highs, with the total potential milestone payments for last year's collaborative projects exceeding $4 billion. The strong performance has boosted overall expectations for the CXO sector, with WuXi AppTec (02359), Tigermed (03347), and Pharmaron (03759) all rising over 6%. Other gainers were driven by specific news. On January 12th, RemeGen (09995) announced it signed an exclusive licensing agreement with AbbVie for its self-developed novel targeted PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody drug, RC148. Under the agreement, AbbVie will obtain exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize RC148 outside Greater China. RemeGen will receive an upfront payment of $650 million and is eligible for up to $4.95 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, plus tiered double-digit royalty payments on net sales outside Greater China. The stock opened high but retreated due to existing uncertainties, still closing up over 7%. Another example, BioCytoGen-B (02315), entered into an option and license agreement with Acepodia Inc., granting Acepodia an option to obtain global exclusive licenses for two of BioCytoGen's BsADC programs. Its stock rose over 8% today. The Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued an announcement adjusting the export tax rebate policy for photovoltaic and battery products, clarifying that the export tax rebate rate for battery products will be phased down starting in 2026 and eventually canceled. This policy change reinforced market expectations for demand being pulled forward in the short term and increased downstream production scheduling, leading the market to quickly trade on the logic of front-loading exports. Lithium carbonate prices surged strongly, hitting the daily limit upward. Ganfeng Lithium (01772) and Tianqi Lithium (09696) both performed well. In the energy storage sector, according to incomplete statistics from TrendForce, China's newly tendered energy storage capacity in December 2025 reached 17.24 GW/51.5 GWh, increasing 61% and 34% year-on-year respectively. Sequentially, power scale slightly decreased by 1%, while capacity scale increased by 4%, with Hebei and Xinjiang leading the growth. Guoxia Technology (02655), associated with AI + energy storage solutions, surged nearly 10%; CALB (03931) rose over 6%. On January 8th, the international version (Heartopia) of XD Inc.'s slow-paced life simulation game "Heartbeat Town" officially launched globally. As of January 11th, "Heartbeat Town" still ranked No. 1 on the Apple Store free chart in 10 countries/regions including Japan, South Korea, France, and Thailand, ranked within the top 20 in 30 countries/regions including Germany, the US, and Canada, and ranked within the top 200 in a total of 108 countries/regions.
In a recent tweet, former President Trump stated that tech giants must bear the electricity costs of data centers. Trump said: "The average American family's monthly utility bill has increased substantially—by over 30%! I absolutely do not want Americans to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers. Therefore, my administration is working with major American tech companies to secure their commitment to the American people; we will announce many things in the coming weeks. First is Microsoft, my team has been working with them. Microsoft will begin major adjustments this week to ensure Americans do not 'foot the bill' for their electricity consumption through higher utility bills. We are the 'hottest' country in the world and number one in AI. Data centers are key to this prosperity, but the large tech companies building them must pay their own way." The AI boom is driving robust demand for electricity, with the current biggest problem being power shortages. Additionally, a transformer explosion in Cleveland, USA, caused a city-wide blackout, and Elon Musk mentioned that xAI must generate a gigawatt of power, requiring transformers. Major companies involved in exporting related power equipment to North America include: Dongfang Electric (01072), Wasion Holdings (03393), Harbin Electric (01133), and China Power International (02380).
Zijin Gold International (02259): Rising Risk Aversion Supports Gold Price; Focus on Overseas Gold Business. On Monday, gold broke through the $4,600 per ounce barrier for the first time, setting another historic record. The main construction and core equipment installation for the Phase II expansion project of the Julong Copper Mine have been fully completed and successfully underwent integrated trial operation. Comment: Rising risk aversion supports the gold price. After the Julong Copper Mine Phase II project reaches full capacity, it will add daily processing capacity of 200,000 tons of ore. At that point, the combined daily processing capacity of Phases I and II will reach 350,000 tons, equivalent to recreating 1.3 times the original "Julong" mine. Planning for the Phase III project is already underway concurrently. After Phase III, the Julong Copper Mine will rank among the world's largest copper mines in terms of mining and processing scale. Focus on overseas gold business. The company owns a total of 8 gold mines located in South America, Africa, Central Asia, Oceania, etc. Gold business accounts for over 95% of its operations, making it a pure gold play. The company's attributable gold resources currently stand at 1,812.7 tonnes, with attributable gold reserves of 851.9 tonnes (including the RG Gold Mine in Kazakhstan). Lower acquisition costs: from 2019 to 2024, the company's average gold mine acquisition cost was $61.3 per ounce, lower than the industry average of $92.9 per ounce. Furthermore, the acquired mines have continuously achieved resource growth; for example, by the end of 2024, the resource estimates for the Rosebel and Akem gold mines had increased by over 70% compared to the time of acquisition. Over the past three years, the company's production growth rate of 21% was the fastest among large gold stocks, and retrospectively, actual production has highly aligned with initial annual guidance (achievement rates of 99%/101%/103% for the 6 producing mines in 2022-2024). Relying on organic growth and external acquisitions, the company's gold production CAGR is expected to maintain a high growth rate of over 15%. Gold prices are expected to maintain a long-term bull market, with global central bank gold purchases sustaining over 1,000 tonnes annually. From 2025 to 2027, the company's average annual compound growth rate for gold production is still expected to exceed 15%, maintaining its rapid growth momentum.
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