Hong Kong stocks closed (08.31) | The Hang Seng Index closed down 0.07%, and domestic bank stocks showed impressive performance, and gold stocks and domestic housing stocks generally declined

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Federal Reserve Chairman Walsh released hawkish signals at the Jackson Hole annual meeting to boost interest rate hikes in September. Hong Kong stocks rebounded after falling under pressure in early trading. At the close, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.07% or 17.8 points to 25566.99 points, with a full-day turnover of HK$314.819 billion; the Hang Seng State-owned Enterprises Index rose 0.27% to 8513.18 points; the Hang Seng Technology Index rose 0.32% to 461,987 points. Looking at the whole month, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.23%, the China Index fell 1.15%, and the Hengke Index fell 4.34%.

Huatai Securities believes that September will enter a period of intense events and policies, but the main fundamentals are still unclear, market transaction activity is poor, and the volatility may still be high. 1) The probability of interest rate hikes increased after the annual meeting of central banks around the world, but there are still doubts about the FOMC in September, and the valuation of Hong Kong stocks was affected by fluctuations in the US dollar; 2) A new catalyst for the AI industry chain has yet to emerge. 3) The strength of the countercyclical domestic demand policy remains to be seen, and Hong Kong stock profits are generally weak. 4) Geographic and tariff issues are still repeated.

Blue-chip stock performance

Bank of China (03988) reached a record high. At the close, it rose 5.73% to HK$5.9 billion, with a turnover of HK$3,986 billion. Contributed 34.77 points. The Bank of China's revenue for the first half of the year was 357.113 billion yuan, up 8.41% year on year; shareholders' profit after tax was 123.594 billion yuan, up 5.1% year on year, leading the profit growth rate among the six major state-owned banks. Net interest income for the first half of the year increased 10.2% year over year, and net interest spread was 1.27%, up 1 basis point year over year.

In terms of other blue-chip stocks, BYD Electronics (00285) rose 9.05% to HK$27, contributing 2.78 points; Shunyu Optical Technology (02382) rose 7.4% to HK$71.1, contributing 5.3 points to the Hang Seng Index; China Overseas Development (00688) fell 9.33% to HK$12.53, dragging down 7.64 points; Henderson Land (00012) fell 7.32% to HK$26.86, dragging down 4.68 points.

Popular sector aspects

On the market, the trend of large technology stocks diverged, with Tencent falling 0.48% and rising nearly 2% after Meituan's performance. Domestic bank stocks rose against the market. The six major banks reported overall positive growth compounded by signs of stabilizing net interest spreads. The Bank of China reached a record high; real estate sales faced major institutional changes, domestic housing stocks opened high and low, Greentown China fell by more than 17%; and PCB concept, insurance, and coal stocks rose. On the other side, Walsh's hawkish remarks boosted expectations of interest rate hikes, and gold stocks generally fell; airline stock performance later came under pressure, and the three major airlines collectively lost more than 8 billion yuan in the first half of the year; pharmaceuticals and automobile stocks weakened.

Domestic bank stocks had the highest gains. At the close, Postbank (01658) rose 6.96% to HK$5.3; Bank of China (03988) rose 5.73% to HK$5.9; Bank of Communications (03328) rose 3.86% to HK$7.8; and CCB (00939) rose 3.94% to HK$9.5.

In the first half of this year, the six major banks achieved a combined revenue of over 2 trillion yuan, and net profit to mother all achieved year-on-year growth. Among them, the Bank of China's net profit to mother grew the fastest in the first half of the year, with a year-on-year increase of 5.10%. At the same time, net interest spreads, which have been under pressure for two years, showed signs of stabilization, and the net interest spreads of many banks have rebounded. It is worth mentioning that five ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Housing and Construction, have intensively implemented the new real estate policy. CITIC Securities believes that the implementation of the policy will help the real estate credit system adapt to the transformation of a new model of high-quality real estate development. It is expected that banks' real estate loan investment will have room to increase, and asset quality will usher in a high degree of certainty to improve expectations.

Domestic housing stocks opened higher and moved lower. At the close, Greentown China (03900) fell 17.58% to HK$6.26; Sunac China (01918) fell 10.37% to HK$0.605; and Xincheng Development (01030) fell 5.84% to HK$1.37.

On August 28, the People's Bank of China and the General Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued “Opinions on Reforming and Improving Real Estate Credit Management to Accelerate the Construction of a New Model for Real Estate Development”. The opinion clarifies that real estate development loans are governed by the host bank system. The maximum loan period for pre-sale projects is no more than 5 years, and the maximum loan period for existing housing sales projects is no more than 7 years. The opinion also made it clear that the maximum term of a personal housing loan is not more than 40 years; if the newly built housing purchased is sold as an existing home, the personal housing loan should be issued after the sale is registered; if pre-sale is carried out, it should be issued strictly after the project is completed and registered.

Gold stocks generally declined. At the close, Lingbao Gold (03330) fell 6.08% to HK$22.24; Zijin Gold International (02259) fell 5.71% to HK$152; and Chifeng Gold (06693) fell 5.57% to HK$41.36.

International precious metals prices took a quick dive this morning. Spot gold once fell below 4,400 US dollars/ounce, the first time since August 19. Earlier, Federal Reserve Chairman Walsh Jackson Hole made his debut and spoke for Jackson Hole, the biggest hawk since 2009, implying that interest rates would be raised if inflation did not fall quickly. The probability of an interest rate hike in September would rise from 35% to nearly 60%, or two interest rate hikes before March 2027. Meanwhile, mutual attacks between the US and Iran are driving up oil prices, and the US military bombed two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military facilities on Larak Island. This is the first time in a month that the US military has taken military action against Iran.

Aviation stocks are collectively under pressure. At the close, Eastern Airlines (00670) fell 6.01% to HK$2.735; China Southern Airlines (01055) fell 5.18% to HK$3.11; and Air China (00753) fell 5.04% to HK$3.77.

On the evening of August 30, the 2026 semi-annual reports of Air China and China Eastern Airlines were released. Combined with the semi-annual reports previously disclosed by China Southern Airlines, the three major airlines combined lost more than 8 billion yuan in the first half of the year. According to reports, aviation fuel procurement costs are the largest cost component of airlines. Financial reports show that Air China's aviation fuel costs increased by 8.439 billion yuan year-on-year in the first half of the year, mainly due to rising aviation fuel prices. During the period, China Eastern Airlines' operating costs were 74.06 billion yuan, an increase of 15.05% over the previous year, which also increased aviation fuel costs.

Popular exotic stocks

Haiqing Zhiyuan (01392) surged after his performance. At the close, it was up 19.88% to HK$28.7.

Haiqing Zhiyuan announced the results for the first half of the year. Revenue increased 84.5% year on year to about 410 million yuan, and revenue from the multispectral AI large model service business increased 382.5% year on year to 320 million yuan, further increasing its contribution to revenue. In terms of revenue, in 2025, the company ranked first in the domestic multispectral AI field and multispectral AI large model service market.

MeiG Intelligence (03268) AH shares rose sharply. At the close, it was up 19.87% to HK$22.98.

Hugging Face, an open source AI community, launched the $399 biped robot Microduck, which aims to lower the threshold for robot use and support new skills in enhanced learning, simulation, and open source software development. This has directly drawn the market's attention to the application prospects of end-to-end AI (running AI inference locally on terminal devices rather than relying on cloud computing power) in the robotics field.

An outbreak broke out in the early report of Bijiao Technology (06082). At the close, it was up 18.81% to HK$46.62.

Bijiao Technology disclosed its 2026 interim results. In the first half of the year, it achieved operating income of 1,236 million yuan, an increase of about 1997.6%; losses during the period narrowed sharply to 377 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 76.4%; and gross margin increased significantly to 42.7%. In the first half of the year, sales of Bizao Technology's Bijiao™ series products continued to expand, and several benchmark projects were launched.

MINIMAX-W (00100) surged against the market. At the close, it was up 16.18% to HK$349.

MiniMax announced that the H3 Max 768P and H3 Max 480P are officially connected to the MiniMax Open Platform and MiniMax Design. H3 max uses FAL for post-training and inference optimization based on the MiniMax H3 open weight version. A 5-second, 768p full audio and video. The generation time was less than 3 seconds, and the generation speed began to be faster than the playback speed.

BYD Electronics (00285) is trending strongly. At the close, it was up 9.05% to HK$27.

BYD Electronics' net profit for the first half of the year was 426 million yuan, down 75.35% year on year. Profit pressure was mainly affected by the phased decline in the smart terminal components business and exchange losses. In terms of AI liquid cooling, the latest generation of liquid-cooled cold plate products from major overseas customers has been developed. The project has entered the phase of mass production. The heat dissipation efficiency is at the leading level in the industry, effectively solving the heat dissipation problem of high-power chips.

Reading Group (00772) skits catalyzed growth. At the close, it was up 6.97% to HK$21.48.

“Journey to the West” was officially scheduled. As the first star-broadcast AI drama in China, AIGC was used to complete the interpretation of images and characters, with no real actors participating. The market believes that the launch of the drama has verified that the closed loop of AI dramas is running through from concept to film and commerce. Reading the semi-annual report revealed that the company's revenue related to skits and AI comics in the first half of the year exceeded 430 million yuan, an increase of 2.3 times over the previous year.

Mingchuang Premium (09896) plummeted after the results. At the close, it was down 12.57% to HK$18.57.

Mingchuang Premium announced its 2026 interim results. The company's revenue for the first half of the year increased 22.4% to 11.5 billion yuan, and adjusted net profit excluding exchange gains and losses fell 1.7% to 1.22 billion yuan. Overseas revenue increased 14.9% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and the same store's GMV declined by a single digit. Mingchuang Premium predicts that the adjusted net profit for the whole year will drop by a high number of units year on year, and the adjusted operating profit margin will drop 3-4 percentage points year on year.