Hong Kong Stock Market Closing (02.15) | Hang Seng Index rose 0.41%, Bitcoin-related stocks surged, SINOHOPE TECH rose nearly 30% at one point.

Zhitong App learned that the three major stock indexes in Hong Kong opened lower in the morning but quickly rebounded and turned positive, only to fall back and decline afterwards. Approaching midday, the three indexes hit bottom and rebounded, with the Hang Seng Index rising more than 1% at one point. Throughout the day, the market showed a volatile upward trend. At the close, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.41% or 65.25 points to 15,944.63 points, with a total turnover of HKD 47.017 billion. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.46% to 5,410.94 points, and the Hang Seng Technology Index rose 0.79% to 3,223.1 points.

Zhejiang International pointed out that from a fundamental perspective, policies continue to exert efforts in various areas such as the capital market, real estate, and consumption, and the substantial improvement in fundamentals still needs to be observed and tracked. From a funding perspective, the US economic data continues to remain strong, combined with key inflation data exceeding expectations, which further cools down the expectation of interest rate cuts. In terms of allocation, it is emphasized to maintain a diversified and balanced industry sector allocation. In a weak market environment, it is important to focus on the performance, stock price, and stable dividends of state-owned enterprises in industries, while also recommending retaining some layout in cyclical, policy-driven, and prosperous industries.

Performance of Blue-chip Stocks

LI NING (02331) led the gains among blue-chip stocks. At the close, it rose 5.58% to HKD 20.25, with a turnover of HKD 620 million, contributing 3.99 points to the Hang Seng Index. Daiwa recently pointed out that LI NING's stock price has rebounded 25% from its low point in January, and it is believed that its fundamental factors have improved. However, the recovery of the stock price will take time and will not rise sharply in the next few months. It is also estimated that the retail performance in the first quarter is weak, and the core operating surplus in the first half of the year will continue to decline. However, with the recovery of the wholesale channel and the low base effect, the second half of the year will see a strong rebound.

In other blue-chip stocks, JD.com-SW (09618) rose 2.41% to HKD 91.25, contributing 5.9 points to the Hang Seng Index; Lenovo Group (00992) rose 2.21% to HKD 8.34, contributing 2.24 points to the Hang Seng Index; Tencent Holdings (00700) fell 1.59% to HKD 285.4, dragging down the Hang Seng Index by 20 points; XinAo Energy (02688) fell 1.58% to HKD 53.05, dragging down the Hang Seng Index by 1.05 points.

Hot Sectors

On the market, most large technology stocks rose, with Wanguo Data rising more than 7% and JD.com rising more than 2%. "Big Short" investor Michael Burry's hedge fund Scion Asset Management further increased its holdings of Alibaba and JD.com in the fourth quarter of last year. Bitcoin briefly surpassed $52,000, causing related concept stocks to soar. With the release of favorable policies for off-campus training, education stocks rose again. Semiconductor stocks, Apple concept stocks, and others also rose. On the other hand, paper stocks, aviation stocks, and real estate stocks showed weak performance. 1. Bitcoin concept stocks soar. At the close, New Fire Technology Holdings (01611) rose 26.07% to HKD 2.95; Xiongan Technology (01647) rose 22.06% to HKD 0.083; OSL Group (00863) rose 12.64% to HKD 9.18; and Ouke Cloud Chain (01499) rose 10.53% to HKD 0.315.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin rose again, reaching a high of over $52,000 at one point, a two-year high. According to CoinGecko, Bitcoin's 22% increase this year has pushed its market value above $1 trillion for the first time since December 2021. Zerohedge, a financial blog, commented that Bitcoin's market value has surpassed that of globally renowned companies such as Tesla and TSMC, making it the world's tenth most valuable asset. This achievement signifies the increasing importance of Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology in the global financial market.

2. Education stocks rise again. At the close, Guangzheng Education (06068) rose 18.64% to HKD 0.35; Maple Leaf Education (01317) rose 9.09% to HKD 0.36; China Education Group (00839) rose 6.12% to HKD 3.99; and New Higher Education Group (02001) rose 5.45% to HKD 2.32.

On the evening of February 8th, the Ministry of Education released the draft "Regulations on the Management of Extracurricular Training" for public consultation, which clarifies and regulates certain specific practices in the education and training industry. Since the release of the "Double Reduction" policy for education and training in 2021, the Ministry of Education has once again issued regulations for the industry. Dongwu Securities believes that this indicates that regulatory authorities do not have a negative attitude towards the education and training industry, but rather require more standardized operations. Education and training companies that meet the regulatory requirements are expected to continue to develop. TF Securities stated that this draft clearly positions extracurricular training as a beneficial supplement to school education and acknowledges parents' reasonable training needs.

3. Some semiconductor stocks rise. At the close, Shanghai Fudan (01385) rose 4.18% to HKD 10.22; Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347) rose 3.3% to HKD 15.66; China Electronics Huada Technology (00085) rose 2.33% to HKD 1.32; and SMIC (00981) rose 0.14% to HKD 14.58.

TSMC's consolidated revenue in January was NT$215.785 billion, a month-on-month increase of 22.4% and a year-on-year increase of 7.9%. TSMC President Wei Zhejia previously predicted that the overall output value of the semiconductor industry this year is expected to grow by 10% (excluding memory), and wafer foundry revenue will also grow by 20%. In addition, ASML stated in its 2023 annual report released on Wednesday that the semiconductor market has bottomed out and there are signs of recovery. ASML reported that in the fourth quarter, the new order amount more than doubled from the previous quarter to EUR 9.19 billion, reaching a historical high and far exceeding analysts' average expectation of EUR 3.6 billion. 4. Real estate stocks generally weaken. As of the close, Jinke Holdings (09993) fell 2.64% to HKD 2.58; China Vanke (02202) fell 1.82% to HKD 5.93; Yuexiu Property (00123) fell 1.56% to HKD 5.06.

Guotai Junan Securities pointed out that after a rebound in December last year, real estate sales continued to decline in January. According to data from CRIC, in January 2024, the sales volume of the top 100 real estate companies decreased significantly by 36.0% YoY, and the sales area decreased by 39.8% YoY. Compared with the previous month, the decline in sales data was more pronounced. The bank pointed out that third- and fourth-tier cities are no longer the main market for real estate sales during the Spring Festival; although first-tier cities have issued new policies, the demand for home purchases can only be gradually released after the Spring Festival. Therefore, it is expected that the real estate sales data in February may not be as encouraging as expected, and it is expected that real estate sales may gradually stabilize starting from March 2024.

Hot Stocks

1. Wei Long Delicious (09985) continues yesterday's upward trend. As of the close, it rose 8.58% to HKD 7.09.

Wei Long previously launched three New Year gift boxes, including the Menglong Gift Series, the Fuli Gift Box Series, and the Longli Gift Box, priced at RMB 56/69/82, including spicy strips, konjac snacks, wind-eating kelp, domineering pandas, little witch konjac vegetarian tripe, and new crispy fire products. It is understood that the sales volume of the "Little Witch" konjac vegetarian tripe increased sixfold within 10 days of its launch, and on "Double Eleven" day, the sales exceeded ten thousand, with a daily sales volume increase of 400% MoM.

2. Reddy Medicine (09688) rises throughout the day. As of the close, it rose 6.07% to HKD 15.72.

According to the latest information from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, J.P. Morgan increased its holdings of Reddy Medicine by 13.3122 million ordinary shares, with an average on-exchange price of HKD 15.9173 per share and an average off-exchange price of HKD 15.6401 per share, totaling approximately HKD 212 million. Previously, on February 6th, J.P. Morgan increased its holdings of Reddy Medicine by 10.107 million ordinary shares, with an average on-exchange price of HKD 17.4006 per share and an average off-exchange price of HKD 17.2896 per share, totaling approximately HKD 176 million.

3. China Duty Free (01880) reaches a new high in the stage. As of the close, it rose 3.68% to HKD 81.6. According to the statistics from Haikou Customs on the 14th, during the first four days of the holiday (February 10th to 13th), the customs supervised a total of 1.217 billion yuan in duty-free shopping on outlying islands, with a total of 156,000 people shopping duty-free and an average consumption of 7,802 yuan per person. It is reported that during the 2023 Spring Festival holiday, Haikou Customs supervised a total of 1.56 billion yuan in duty-free shopping on outlying islands. This year's Spring Festival holiday has just passed the halfway mark and has already reached nearly 80% of the total sales amount of last year's holiday.