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E-mail Xinhua, February 15, 2025
A stock code is seen at the trading hall of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) in Hong Kong, south China, June 11, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]
Hong Kong's stock market rallied on Friday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 3.69 percent to 22,620.33 points, capping the fifth consecutive week of gains as investors gravitate towards Hong Kong-listed mainland tech firms.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index jumped 4.11 percent to 8,331.4 points on Friday, and the Hang Seng Tech Index soared 5.56 percent to 5,526.22 points.
The Hang Seng Tech Index, comprising shares of Chinese tech heavyweights like Tencent, Alibaba and Xiaomi, hiked 7.3 percent within this week and 29.7 percent from five weeks ago.
China's recent breakthroughs in generative AI spearheaded by the startup DeepSeek renewed investor confidence in Chinese tech stocks, analysts say. DeepSeek-R1, a model released in January, is said to have achieved performance comparable to leading AI systems, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, but at a fraction of the development cost.
The vast majority of Hong Kong-listed mainland tech firms saw shares rise on Friday, attesting to the across-the-board benefits AI tools are expected to generate.
The E-commerce, consumer electronics, semiconductors and automotive industries are in line for capacity and revenue boosts when they embrace AI, wrote Ma Lei, chief investment officer of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong of Invesco, in a research note.
Development of self-driving technologies and humanoid robots could also be supercharged, Ma added. Both are among the most-watched frontiers -- Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD on Monday unveiled its advanced driver-assistance system to be installed on 21 models, while robots doing handkerchief-spinning dances at the nationally televised Spring Festival Gala are still trending unabated on social media.
DeepSeek is likely to initiate a new cycle of innovation for Chinese firms in sectors including cloud services, computing chips and consumer Apps, according to a research note from Huatai Securities.
A slew of firms announced this week that they incorporated DeepSeek models into their services. Zhihu rolled out a new online query platform based on the R1 model on Wednesday, and education company Xueersi introduced an R1-facilitated App on Friday to tutor K-12 students.
Optimism prevails about Hong Kong's stock market outlook in 2025. At the 2025 spring reception of Hong Kong's financial services sector held on Thursday, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government Paul Chan said he consulted several AI models, all of which confirmed his notion that technology will add tailwinds for the stock market this year.
Chan said that the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited received dozens of new listing applications in January, and he believed that more good companies will enter the stock market this year.
Additionally, international investors in the Hong Kong market remained active and well-funded, which will further enhance the liquidity of Hong Kong stocks, he said.
