Hong Kong stocks opened higher today before briefly pulling back to 23,023 points, then swung upward driven by AI hardware and innovative drug names, with gains narrowing in late trading as all three major indices finished in positive territory.
At the close, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.23% or 53.51 points to 23,094.83, with turnover of HK$181.428 billion; the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.32% to 7,791.63; and the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 1.40% to 3,853.72.
Haitong International's Zhang Yidong believes policy disruptions and liquidity positioning will determine the pace of declines and also govern the pace of rebounds, with key overseas event windows concentrated in the coming two weeks 鈥?the FOMC meeting on October 27鈥?8 and the US midterm elections on November 3. If Asian deleveraging runs its course and large tech companies' earnings at month-end meet expectations, the market will have conditions for a phased rebound.
Blue-Chip Performance
Lenovo Group Ltd (ASX: 00992) put in a standout performance, closing up 6.26% at HK$23.78 on turnover of HK$2.674 billion. CITIC Securities released a preview of Lenovo's fiscal 2026/27 second-quarter results, noting that although market concerns over the sustainability of AI capital expenditure and new cloud financing risks have intensified, demand for traditional and AI servers remains strong, and Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) is expected to maintain a high level of activity.
Among other blue chips, Hua Hong Grace (01347) rose 8.44% to HK$70; SMIC (00981) gained 5.43% to HK$47.8; Zijin Mining (02899) added 3.47% to HK$28.64; and AIA Group (01299) fell 2.21% to HK$70.9.
Hot Sectors
On the board, heavyweight tech stocks traded mixed, with Alibaba up 1.96% and Tencent Holdings up 0.62%; the AI hardware chain erupted across the board, with optical communications, PCB and memory chips all surging in tandem, as Zhongji Innolight and KB Laminates jumped more than 8%; innovative drugs and CXO rebounded alongside third-quarter earnings, with Hengrui Pharma up 10.82%; and the physical AI concept, represented by humanoid robots, showed renewed strength.
On the other side, New Oriental plunged 7.33% ahead of its results, the biggest decliner among Hang Seng Index constituents; gaming stocks fell across the board; and utilities were soft.
Memory Chips, Optical Communications and PCB Stocks Surge Collectively
At the close, Ingenic (03223) rose 18.94% to HK$79.45; GigaDevice (03986) gained 9.91% to HK$359.2; Montage Tech (06809) advanced 9.20% to HK$230.2; KB Laminates (01888) added 8.28% to HK$40.3; and ZJ Innolight (03308) climbed 8.28% to HK$785.
Renewed enthusiasm for AI trades, combined with SK Hynix's strongest-ever quarterly report, extended Asia-Pacific stock gains on Wednesday following the overnight US rally. SK Hynix's results showed third-quarter revenue of KRW 104.62 trillion, surpassing KRW 100 trillion for the first time in a single quarter, up 32% quarter-on-quarter and 328% year-on-year, while operating profit reached KRW 83.33 trillion, up 38% quarter-on-quarter and 632% year-on-year. SK Hynix's CEO said on the earnings call that DRAM and HBM capacity is nearly sold out for the next three years, greatly improving medium- to long-term sales visibility. In addition, Anthropic's IPO filing eased uncertainty over AI commercialization and funding sources, while Meta's forward common stock offering drew roughly five times subscription demand, showing quality tech leaders still possess strong financing capacity. Domestically, the PCB supply chain's third-quarter net profit growth accelerated markedly, further confirming that demand for AI servers and related products is translating into profits. UBS believes tech hardware profit growth remains strong, with earnings forecasts for most AI tech stocks revised up 12% to 15% over the past three months, though valuations have approached historic lows.
Pharmaceutical Stocks Stage Strong Rebound
At the close, Genscript Bio (01548) rose 11.21% to HK$36.7; Hengrui Pharma (01276) gained 10.82% to HK$49.56; Akeso (09926) added 5.19% to HK$85.05; and Wuxi Bio (02269) climbed 3.72% to HK$46.32. Hengrui Pharma's third-quarter revenue reached 8.953 billion yuan, up 20.55% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.458 billion yuan, up 88.92% year-on-year, mainly due to confirmed BD gains boosting profit. In the first three quarters, the company's innovative drug out-licensing business recognized revenue of 2.781 billion yuan, up 31.12% year-on-year. Zhongtai Securities said that as ESMO data and third-quarter reports continue to be disclosed, the innovative drug sector is expected to further differentiate around fundamentals. It recommends downplaying short-term sentiment disruptions and grasping allocation opportunities after adjustments in innovative drug leaders with differentiated Phase III data and BD cash flow support, as well as CXO leaders with high visibility on order growth, delivery pace and profit improvement.
Physical AI Strengthens Again
At the close, Manycore Tech (00068) rose 20.64% to HK$3.77; UBTech Robotics (09880) gained 9.16% to HK$69.1; Dobot (02432) added 8.27% to HK$19.89; Hesai-W (02525) climbed 7.75% to HK$13.9; and Zhaowei (02692) advanced 7.69% to HK$35. Physical AI has recently seen rapidly rising attention, with industry events including OpenAI, Nvidia's GTC and Unitree's ecosystem conference jointly driving an explosive sector rally. Huafu Securities noted that physical AI refers to the capability system that enables artificial intelligence to understand and act upon the physical world, with its core being the world model 鈥?the ability to predict how physical states evolve under operational interventions. Robots are the best carriers of physical AI: first, robots possess a closed loop of perception, decision-making, execution and feedback, and the consequences of operations can be observed, measured and annotated; second, robots continuously generate interaction data in the real physical world, the only source for training and validating world models; and third, model capabilities must ultimately act on the physical world through a body to generate economic value.
Gaming Stocks Decline Across the Board
At the close, Wynn Macau (01128) fell 3.33% to HK$4.505; Melco International (00200) dropped 2.71% to HK$2.33; MGM China (02282) declined 2.61% to HK$8.95; and Sands China (01928) slipped 2.11% to HK$10.66. A Citi research note said Macau's gaming revenue for the first 25 days of October is estimated at about MOP 17.65 billion, with a daily average of about MOP 592 million from October 20 to 25, 3% lower than the MOP 613 million from October 12 to 19 and 2% below September's MOP 602 million, indicating continued weakness, with the month-to-date daily average down about 10% year-on-year. The bank cut its October gaming revenue forecast from MOP 23 billion to MOP 21.5 billion, down 11% year-on-year. UBS attributed the recent slowdown to low VIP win rates and weak high-end demand, and expects the base effect in November to remain challenging.
Notable Stock Movers
Standard Chartered (02888) surged in the afternoon, closing up 7.64% at HK$219.8. Standard Chartered reported third-quarter results with operating income up 14% year-on-year to US$5.8 billion, net interest income up 9% year-on-year to US$3 billion, driven by trading volumes and balance sheet portfolio optimization; profit before tax was US$2.3 billion, up 29% year-on-year. Standard Chartered raised its full-year operating income growth guidance to above its original 5% to 7% range and expects a full-year return on tangible equity of about 14%.
Sinotrans (00598) rose after earnings, closing up 8.56% at HK$4.63. Sinotrans released its 2026 third-quarter report, with first-three-quarter revenue of 71.987 billion yuan, down 4.07% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.676 billion yuan, down 0.12% year-on-year. In the third quarter alone, revenue was 25.53 billion yuan, up 4.2% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 951 million yuan, up 29.9% year-on-year.
Bama Tea (06980) plunged on lock-up expiry, closing down 17.94% at HK$18.71. The lock-up period for 33.5165 million shares held by pre-IPO investors and existing shareholders expired today, one year after listing, representing about 39.43% of total issued shares. The stock fell more than 25% intraday to a low of HK$16.81. The company listed on October 28, 2025 at HK$50 per share, and based on the October 23 closing price of HK$22.66, early investors face a paper loss of about 54.68%.
New Oriental-S (09901) accelerated its decline, closing down 7.33% at HK$42.76, the biggest decliner among Hang Seng Index constituents today. According to a previous announcement, the board will release results for the three months ended August 31, 2026 before the US market opens on October 28, with an earnings conference call scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Hong Kong time today.
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