Hang Seng Index rallied for 9th straight trading day, longest winning streak since 2018

 

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Hong Kong stocks rallied for the ninth consecutive trading day on Friday driven by capital inflows amid improving market sentiment.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index surged as much as 2.2% to hit 18,604 at one point, marking a new high since September 2023, before closing 1.48% up at 18,475, rallying for the ninth consecutive trading day, marking the longest wining-streak since 2018.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.7% to close at 6,547 and the Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 2.7% to close at 3,971.

Technology heavyweights were mostly higher on Friday, with Bilibili surging nearly 7%, Weibo, JD.com and Kuaishou up more than 5%, Xpeng Motors, NetEase, Baidu and Alibaba up more than 4%, Sunny Optical, Trip.com, Li Auto and Xiaomi gaining more than 3%, Tencent up more than 1%.

Automakers, insurance companies, education companies, Apple suppliers, mainland property developers, Macau casino operators also outperformed.

The rally came after the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index surged more than 6% overnight on Thursday in the US, the offshore yuan strengthened significantly to break through 7.19 per dollar mark, and Hong Kong’s first-quarter GDP expanded 2.7% from a year earlier, beating market expectations, prompting several banks to raise forecast of Hong Kong’s full-year growth.

Biotech companies led the losses, with Wuxi XDC sliding 10.4%, Wuxi Apptec down 5.3% and Wuxi Biologics down 4.1%. Precious metal companies, steelmakers and securities brokerage companies were also lower.

The trend of the Hong Kong stock market changed in the final trading days of April, UBS said in a report tracking hedge fund flows.

Unlike the existing pattern since February when inflows came mainly from covering short positions, long-short hedge funds have continued to collect Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks, with most of the purchases focusing on technology and consumer discretionary stocks, the bank said.

BofA Securities said in a report that some large global long-only funds appear to be increasing their positions in Chinese stocks by buying Hong Kong stocks, suggesting that investors may be looking to diversify their Chinese portfolios unobtrusively by buying both Hong Kong and Mainland-listed stocks in light of the recent volatility in US and Japanese equities.