Hong Kong stocks closed (12.16) | Hang Seng Index closed down 1.54%, aviation stocks reversed the market, and Yangke.com, gold stocks, etc. fell

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the market is waiting for the US non-farm payrolls report to be released tonight, while watching the Bank of Japan's interest rate meeting this week. The three major Hong Kong stock indices fell again today. Hengke indicated a marked decline in the afternoon. At one point, it fell nearly 3% intraday. At the close, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.54% or 393.47 points to 25235.41 points, with a full-day turnover of HK$201,528 billion; the Hang Seng State-owned Enterprises Index fell 1.79% to 8757.93 points; and the Hang Seng Technology Index fell 1.74% to 5402.51 points.

China Merchants Securities International pointed out that the recent weakening of Hong Kong stocks is due to the crowding out effect of south-bound capital returning to A-shares and groups due to the new public offering benchmark regulations, concerns about the wave of IPO financing, the arrival of the peak of the lifting of the ban, the decline in profits, and disturbances in overseas liquidity. The bank believes that the Fed's interest rate cut is dovish, the impact of Japanese yen arbitrage liquidation is limited, and overseas liquidity is disrupted or marginally mitigated. Looking ahead to the future market, Hong Kong stocks have the potential to recover on New Year's Eve.

Blue-chip stock performance

Lenovo Group (00992) rebounded against the market. At the close, it rose 1.05% to HK$9.66, with a turnover of HK$985 million, contributing 1.18 points to the Hang Seng Index. On the morning of December 16, AMD Chairman and CEO Su Zifeng led a team of executives to visit Lenovo Group's global headquarters in Beijing. Accompanied by a number of Lenovo Group executives, AMD and their entourage visited many of Lenovo's latest products and technological achievements, including humanoid robots.

In terms of other blue-chip stocks, China Resources Brewery (00291) rose 1.05% to HK$27, contributing 0.72 points; Shenzhou International (02313) rose 0.73% to HK$62.05, contributing 0.6 points to the Hang Seng Index; Zijin Mining (02899) fell 4.41% to HK$32.94, dragging down the Hang Seng Index by 14.58 points; Changjiang Infrastructure Group (01038) fell 4.39% to HK$53.4, dragging down the Hang Seng Index by 2.47 points.

Popular sector aspects

On the market, the market was under significant pressure. Large technology stocks declined again, Alibaba fell nearly 3%, and Tencent fell more than 1%. Spot gold fell below 4,300 US dollars. Gold stocks had the highest decline, with non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminum falling; the virtual currency market plummeted, and cryptocurrency ETFs and concept stocks were under pressure; power equipment stocks, optical communications, and automobile stocks were turning green. On the other side, L3 autonomous driving was implemented, and some smart driving concept stocks strengthened. Zhejiang Shibao surged nearly 13%; the RMB exchange rate strengthened, aviation stocks rose against the market; domestic housing stocks rose for a while in the afternoon.

1. Some smart driving concept stocks strengthened. At the close, Zhejiang Shibao (01057) rose 12.9% to HK$4.55; Youjiao Innovation (02431) rose 8.98% to HK$10.92; and Hesai-W (02525) rose 1.2% to HK$160.5.

On December 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced the entry permit list for the first batch of L3 class conditional autonomous driving models in China. Changan Automobile and BAIC Jihu became the first batch of shortlisted car companies. Also, according to a report by First Finance today, Xiaopeng Motor has obtained an L3 autonomous driving road test license in Guangzhou and has begun normalized L3 road tests. Overseas, the Tesla model YroboTaxi running Unsupervised FSD appeared on the streets of Austin in the US. Haitong International believes that with the continuous volume verification of Tesla Robotaxi and the institutionalization of L3 models in China, the inflection point of the advanced autonomous driving industry is arriving at an accelerated pace and will profoundly affect the vehicle valuation system and competitive pattern.

2. Airline stocks reversed the market. At the close, China Eastern Airlines (00670) rose 1.71% to HK$4.77; Air China (00753) rose 1.57% to HK$6.47; and China Southern Airlines (01055) rose 1.35% to HK$5.26.

On December 16, the onshore and offshore RMB exchange rates against the US dollar strengthened again. Among them, the offshore RMB exchange rate against the US dollar once again broke through 7.04 and once rose to 7.03725 intraday, a new high since October 4, 2024. Furthermore, the three major airlines still have strong passenger occupancy rates during the off-season. The passenger occupancy rate of Eastern Airlines in November was 87.37%, up 3.04 percentage points from the previous year; the passenger occupancy rate of China Southern Airlines in November was 86.29%, up 1.36 percentage points from the previous year; the average passenger occupancy rate of Air China in November was 83.3%, up 4 percentage points from the previous year. Huatai Securities believes that the medium- to long-term industry supply growth rate may remain low, and the improvement in sentiment is expected to lead to higher ticket prices. At the same time, oil prices and the exchange rate of the US dollar to RMB are expected to reduce cost pressure and jointly improve airline profits.

3. Gold stocks had the highest decline. At the close, Tongguan Gold (00340) fell 6.92% to HK$2.69; Zijin Gold International (02259) fell 6% to HK$148.9; Chifeng Gold (06693) fell 5.67% to HK$30.3; and Zijin Mining (02899) fell 4.41% to HK$32.94.

On December 16, spot gold dived intraday after a brief surge and fell below 4,300 US dollars. Currently, the market is focusing on the US November Non-Farm Report to be released tonight. This report will also include all November data as well as part of October data. CITIC Futures pointed out that if non-agricultural farmers continue to verify that the labor market is weakening, the upward space for gold prices is expected to open up again; if the data is phased, the price of gold may fluctuate at a high level, but the room for correction is expected to be limited. Furthermore, according to a report released by J.P. Morgan Chase, the much-publicized Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) will soon undergo an annual weight rebalance in January 2026. This technical adjustment is expected to put significant selling pressure on gold and silver futures, and its scale is sufficient to have a substantial impact on short-term market sentiment and prices.

4. Technology stocks continued to decline. At the close, Alibaba-W (09988) fell 2.96% to HK$144.2; SMIC (00981) fell 1.93% to HK$63.45; and Tencent (00700) fell 1.98% to HK$596.5.

Recent liquidity factors and the correction in the US AI sector have put pressure on Hong Kong stock market sentiment. Also, according to brokerage China, this afternoon, information “involving the tax determination of relevant high-tech companies” was circulating among brokerage researchers, causing market fluctuations. Although this rumor has yet to receive official endorsement, the market has begun to price it. Some brokerage researchers said that they are only becoming stricter, not one-size-fits-all. The Dongwu Securities Research Report pointed out that from a financial perspective, southbound capital is mainly defensive. They generally wait until the end of this year and attack after starting next year. Looking at the medium to long term, the leading AI technology valuation in Hong Kong stocks is within a reasonable range. Once new policies or industry catalysts are in place and capital is launched, Hang Seng Technology will clearly rebound.

Popular exotic stocks

1. Guoxia Technology (02655) surged to the close, rising 117.91% to HK$43.8.

Guoxia Technology's current IPO was priced at HK$20.1. A total of 389.30,800 shares were issued, with 100 shares per lot, with a net proceeds of approximately HK$782.51 million. According to reports, this public sale recorded more than 1,800 times oversubscription, amounting to more than HK$130 billion, making it the top buyer in the field of AI robot safety for Hong Kong stock IPOs this year. World-renowned long-term funds such as VanCapital, Schonfeld, Symmetry, and InfiniCapital participated actively.

As a growing leader in the AI Internet energy storage field, Guoxia Technology continues to break through with technology and market support. It will expand the “AI robot safety” circuit in the long term, and is expected to open up a new market at the 100 billion level. The company is strategically migrating core technologies such as AI algorithms, edge computing, real-time data processing, and energy security accumulated in the field of energy storage, and is committed to developing intelligent safety protection systems for human-robot collaborative environments.

2. Yihuatong (02402) was under pressure throughout the day and closed down 6.6% to HK$24.92.

Yihuatong announced plans to place up to 8.88 million new H shares, which is equivalent to about 3.69% of the company's total issued share capital after expansion, with an placement price of HK$22.68 per share, a discount of about 14.99% from the closing price on December 15. The total proceeds and net amounts are estimated to be about HK$201 million and HK$198 million respectively. About 90% of these will be used to repay bank loans, and the remaining 10% will be used for the Group's general working capital.