Hong Kong stocks closed (09.17) | The Hang Seng Index closed down 0.44%, and the AI pharmaceutical concept reversed the market and strengthened, and gold and oil stocks were under pressure throughout the day
The Zhitong Finance App learned that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates after a lapse of three years, and there was a clear hawkish shift in the bitmap. Walsh claimed that this rate hike was a “dose of easing” from monetary policy. The three major indices of Hong Kong stocks collectively declined today. At the close, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.44% or 109.49 points to 24604.29 points, with a full-day turnover of HK$185.586 billion; the Hang Seng State-owned Enterprises Index fell 0.38% to 8175.36 points; and the Hang Seng Technology Index fell 0.34% to 4310.74 points.
Huatai Securities believes that looking ahead, the Fed's interest rate hike in September will be implemented, and December may be the actual game period for the next rate hike, and whether the Federal Reserve will start the interest rate hike cycle still needs more data and official statements to determine. SPDB International previously stated that even if the US enters the interest rate hike cycle, the Hong Kong stock allocation can still use the barbell strategy under the C.A.S.T. Framework. The growth side uses AI as the main line in the medium term and extends to the cloud, applications, and innovative drugs overseas, while the defense side focuses on the dividends and stable cash flow assets of central state-owned enterprises.
Blue-chip stock performance
Weichai Power (02338) led the blue chip increase. At the close, it rose 5.35% to HK$31.14, with a turnover of HK$1,174 billion. Citigroup Research reports that Generac, the leading US industrial generator company, signed a long-term supply agreement with Amazon to provide backup generators for Amazon's data center. The initial delivery is expected to total 2.4 billion US dollars from 2027 to 2028. The bank believes that it poses a positive cross-interpretation of Weichai Power. Citi pointed out that Weichai Power is Generac's core supplier and may benefit from continued growth in orders.
In terms of other blue-chip stocks, BYD shares (01211) rose 2.46% to HK$81.15; Cinda Biotech (01801) rose 2.18% to HK$96.15; Old Shop Gold (06181) fell 3.04% to HK$363; and Zijin Mining (02899) fell 1.63% to HK$33.86.
Popular sector aspects
On the market, the majority of TechNet stocks were under pressure. Tencent fell 1.71% and Ali fell 1.04%. The global AI pharmaceutical industry accelerated, with AI pharmaceuticals and CRO concept stocks leading the way. Kingsley Biotech and Eli Lilly TuneLab reached cooperation, surging more than 14%; commercialization of large domestic models accelerated, smart spectrum raised ARR guidelines, and large model concept stocks rose at the same time; gold stocks fell sharply across the board; strong US dollar suppressed commodity prices, putting pressure on oil stocks; semiconductor and PCB concept stocks, which had had a large increase in the previous period, collectively declined.
AI pharmaceuticals and CRO concept stocks strengthened against the market. At the close, Kingsley Biotech (01548) rose 14.31% to HK$37.22; Jietai Technology-P (07666) rose 12.7% to HK$15.53; Biosetu-B (02315) rose 4.27% to HK$61.1; and Insili Smart (03696) rose 6.86% to HK$53.75.
The AI pharmaceutical industry has ushered in a number of favorable catalysts. Kingsley Biotech announced a partnership with Lilly TuneLab™, an AI/machine learning drug discovery collaboration platform to provide wet laboratory verification services for participating companies; Novo Nordisk announced a partnership with Anthropic to accelerate the discovery of new drugs using its Claude Science platform; ByteDance spun off Anew Labs, an independent AI pharmaceutical company, has completed the first round of financing of US$290 million. It is worth noting that Twist, the leading US pharmaceutical testing company, has raised future performance guidelines. The company's relevant order volume in 2025 is 25 million US dollars, and will reach 50 million US dollars in 2026. It is expected to receive orders of up to 100 million US dollars in 2027, double this year.
Societe Generale Securities said that the core of the sharp rise in CXO is that performance improvements brought about by demand-side changes resonate with valuation repairs, causing Davis to double hit. AI for Science is an added bonus on top of this round of the market. It has brought incremental demand to the industry. Major technology companies have entered this circuit as new participants, corresponding to the downstream demand side, further amplifying the demand for upstream services. China Merchants Securities believes that AI pharmaceuticals have already entered the clinical verification stage and are about to usher in an explosion of commercialization.
Big model concept stocks have performed briskly. At the close, MINIMAX-W (00100) rose 7.06% to HK$254.8; Smart Spectrum (02513) rose 2.78% to HK$740.
Zhipu revealed at an exchange meeting between analysts and investors held on September 16 that the company has signed revenue sharing agreements with a number of leading domestic and foreign cloud service providers, and related revenue will be confirmed starting in October. The cooperation model provides services for GLM series open source models in the form of managed APIs on overseas cloud platforms. Currently, the company's full business caliber ARR has reached 1.8 billion US dollars, and the ARR guidelines were raised from 2.4 billion US dollars to 3 billion US dollars at the end of the year. Additionally, MiniMax's ARR surpassed 800 million US dollars in August, of which enterprise users contributed more than 80%.
Robotics concepts are mostly picking up. At the close, Xiangong Intelligence (06106) rose 4.79% to HK$71.05; Johnson Electric Holdings (00179) rose 3.01% to HK$18.46; and Sanhua Intelligent Control (02050) rose 2.61% to HK$24.4.
According to reports, news of the industry chain has been intense recently, and Tesla recently issued a new order for about 5,000 units to suppliers. This is the first mass production order at the level of 1,000 units, following previous trial production orders for hundreds of units. Meanwhile, Tesla is speeding up factory audits of the Optimus humanoid robot supply chain in China, visiting suppliers in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Xiamen. The dual signal of factory review and order marks Optimus's official transition from engineering prototyping to the replicable manufacturing stage. Furthermore, on September 17, Yushu Technology's stock price rose rapidly during the intraday period, and the total market value once again reached the 200 billion yuan mark.
Gold stocks weakened across the board. At the close, Shandong Gold (01787) fell 5.21% to HK$23.3; Chifeng Gold (06693) fell 4.82% to HK$37.48; and China Gold International (02099) fell 3.82% to HK$246.8.
The Federal Reserve announced an interest rate hike of 25 basis points, raising the federal funds rate target range to 3.75%-4.00%, the first rate hike since July 2023, in line with market expectations, but the bitmap and Walsh's speech sent a signal that the austerity cycle is far from over. According to the latest bitmap, 16 officials expect to raise interest rates at least once more during the year. Walsh said that US inflation is still high, and there is almost no information showing that the inflation trend is passing the test. Everbright Futures believes that it is necessary to focus on two variables in the future: one is the direction of the Federal Reserve's subsequent economic data; the other is whether the long-term yield on US bonds can fall from a high level of around 5%.
Popular exotic stocks
The GAC Group (02238) increased its volume. At the close, it was up 7.03% to HK$2.435.
On September 14, the GAC Group announced that it had signed an “Intent Agreement” with China First Automobile Co., Ltd. to plan to purchase part of the shares of an automobile joint venture held by FAW Co., Ltd. by issuing shares and raise supporting capital. According to preliminary estimates, after the transaction is completed, FAW Co., Ltd. will become the company's second-largest and strategically influential shareholder.
COSCO Marine (01138) saw a sharp rise. At the close, it was up 7.85% to HK$19.29.
Driven by geo-risk premiums and tight supply and demand patterns, VLCC fares continue to reach new historical highs. As of Tuesday, the cost of renting a very large crude oil carrier (VLCC) to transport 2 million barrels of crude oil from the US Gulf Coast to China was about US$44.8 million, a record high, up sharply from the previous day's US$39 million, according to data from the Baltic Sea Exchange.
FORTIOR (01304) reversed the market. At the close, it was up 7.22% to HK$126.2.
FORTIOR announced that the board of directors believes that the grant conditions stipulated in the company's 2026 restricted stock incentive plan have been fulfilled, and agreed to decide that 1.97 million restricted shares will be awarded to 301 incentive recipients at an award price of 100 yuan/share, using September 16 as the initial grant date. Zheshang Securities pointed out that this incentive is deeply tied to core business and technical backbone, demonstrating the company's confidence in developing new businesses.
Changfei Optical Fiber Cable (06869) continues its upward trend. At the close, it was up 4.18% to HK$184.4.
The recent ten-year long order signed between Corning and Verizon, combined with a nearly 90% increase in the domestic China Mobile procurement unit price, further confirms that the supply and demand pattern of the optical fiber industry is reversing. Galaxy Securities pointed out that the optical fiber industry is shifting from traditional telecom cycle products to computing power infrastructure tracks. Backbone network expansion resonates with internal data center demand, opening up long-term structural incremental space.