Unlock the Editor’s Digest without spending a dime
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Hong Kong shares have outperformed their mainland friends by the most important margin in almost 20 years, as cash pours in from China because of worries concerning the home financial system and enthusiasm for the territory’s know-how shares.
The benchmark Dangle Seng index is up 16.4 per cent this yr in contrast with a 1.2 per cent decline in mainland China’s CSI 300 index — the most important outperformance yr thus far since 2008.
The rally has been boosted by the rise of DeepSeek, the Chinese language start-up that claims synthetic intelligence advances utilizing far much less computing energy than US rivals, which has inspired investor urge for food for Hong Kong-listed know-how shares.
The territory’s shares, which plummeted extra sharply than mainland equities after US President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement in April, have additionally been helped by easing tensions within the US/China commerce conflict.
The rally comes as cash from mainland China flows into Hong Kong at document excessive ranges.
“Nearly all of the robust outperformance this yr from Hong Kong has been pushed by southbound flows [from the mainland],” stated James Wang, head of China fairness technique at UBS.
“A variety of that has been pushed by the AI commerce,” he added, pointing to the upper proportion of AI shares in Hong Kong than the mainland.
Hong Kong’s outperformance additionally “stems from elementary variations in market composition”, stated Wei Li, head of multi-asset investments for China at BNP Paribas.
“The Dangle Seng index’s heavy weighting in the direction of globally liquid sectors — resembling know-how and finance — has allowed it to capitalise on the Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot and renewed urge for food for Chinese language tech shares.”
Chinese language know-how corporations resembling Tencent and Alibaba are listed in Hong Kong and the US however not on the mainland. Alibaba first grew to become obtainable to mainland buyers in September after the corporate upgraded its itemizing in Hong Kong.
A gathering between Chinese language President Xi Jinping and the nation’s technology companies in February was additionally seen as optimistic for each mainland and Hong Kong shares, however notably for the latter.
“Traders really feel the federal government is giving the inexperienced mild for the tech sector to develop once more,” stated Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Administration.
China’s financial system has been hit onerous by the collapse within the property market and the commerce conflict with the US, which has helped Hong Kong’s outperformance.
“There has usually been concern concerning the home financial system in China being weak,” stated Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist and head of EM financial analysis at Goldman Sachs.
Hong Kong is prone to profit from any strikes out of US equities into different markets and from additional Fed price cuts within the second half of the yr, stated JPMorgan’s Hui.
“Hong Kong is gathering capital each from Chinese language buyers and worldwide buyers” as it’s simpler for abroad buyers to purchase equities within the metropolis than in mainland China, Hui added.
Worldwide cash flowing into Hong Kong seems to be from shorter-term buyers, resembling hedge funds, slightly than longer-term market contributors resembling pension funds, based on UBS’s Wang.
“I wouldn’t say there’s an enormous inflow of long-only cash coming again into the China fairness market simply but,” he added. “Traders have been burned for fairly a very long time in China.”
