Hang Seng Opens Flat as Tech and Travel Diverge
SingTao · 2 SOURCESabout 4 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong equities started Monday almost unchanged, with the Hang Seng Index opening 2 points lower at 24,748 before later rising 80 points to 24,831, as investors balanced hopes for a US-China leaders’ meeting on Thursday against pressure from elevated US Treasury yields and persistent Middle East tensions. Large technology stocks were generally firm, while selected travel-booking names and Zhipu came under pressure in early trade.
Key Points
- The Hang Seng Index opened down 2 points at 24,748, then turned up 80 points or 0.32% to 24,831; the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 29 points or 0.66% to 4,434.
- SingTao reported Chinese and US leaders are due to hold talks on Thursday, September 24, after Donald Trump personally greeted President Xi Jinping at the airport, an unusual move that lifted market expectations
- Beijing’s market regulator opened investigations into four online hotel and travel-booking platform companies involving Meituan, Tongcheng, Alibaba’s Fliggy and Tujia, in which Trip.com has invested
- In early trading, Alibaba rose 1.3% to 2.4%, Tencent gained 1.3% to 1.8%, Meituan was reported down 0.6% at the open but later up 0.1%, while Xiaomi was flat at the open and later up 1.2%.
- Zhipu fell 3.6% to HK$751.5 after saying it would launch a no-retention data feature for enterprise and developer users, while clarifying some services and compliance cases would still require data storage
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong investors, the market is being pulled between possible diplomatic relief from Thursday’s US-China talks and tighter global financial conditions from high US yields and a hawkish Federal Reserve stance. Analysts cited by SingTao said any positive trade-related outcome could help the Hang Seng retest 25,000 to 25,300, but yields above 5% on the US 10-year Treasury remain a major constraint on further gains