Hong Kong stocks experience a strong rebound, with fund-led stocks taking the lead

Hong Kong stocks, which have experienced a deep pullback, have finally seen a much-awaited rebound. On April 1, major sectors of Hong Kong stocks surged across the board. By the close, the Hang Seng TECH Index rose 2.29%, and the Hang Seng Health Care Index jumped 6.39%.

Judging from the market performance, fund “blockholding” stocks have become the core driving force behind the rebound. This includes multiple themes such as robots, innovative drugs, retail consumption, artificial intelligence (AI), and internet entertainment; key stocks across all sectors recorded notable gains, showing the characteristics of a broad-based rebound.

Specifically, the robotics sector performed outstandingly. UbiBots, heavily held by the Qianhai Open Source Fund (Qianhai Kaiyuan Fund), surged 17.10% in a single day; MicroPort Robotics, held by the East Money Fund (East Money), rose nearly 9%. The innovative drugs sector also moved higher in tandem: Lepu Biotech, heavily held by the Jingshun Great Wall Fund, closed up 14.42%; Sansheng Pharmaceutical, heavily held by the Fullgoal Fund, rose by about 12%. In the retail consumption sector, BlueFocus, held by the China Merchants? (Bank of China) Fund? (Bank of China Schroder Fund), rose 6.09%; Oriental Selection, held by the Minsheng Galaxy Fund, rose as much as 10.46%. In the artificial intelligence sector, JingTai Holdings, heavily held by the Harvest Fund, rose 8.10%. The mobile internet entertainment sector also clearly rebounded: Bilibili, heavily held by the Ping An Fund, rose nearly 7%; Zicheng Technology, held by the Southern Fund, surged 10.43%.

It is worth noting that on April 1, the Hong Kong aviation sector led the entire market with a gain of 8.58%, becoming the most direct reflection of consumption recovery, and this is also corroborated by statistical data. Recently, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in February, CPI rose 1.3% year on year, reaching the highest level in nearly three years. Among this, the rebound in service consumption prices was particularly notable. Air ticket prices, transportation equipment leasing, travel agency fees, and hotel accommodation prices rose by 29.1%, 19.8%, 12.5%, and 5.4%, respectively. The recovery in travel-related prices directly reflects a rebound in residents’ offline consumption demand, providing solid fundamental support for sectors such as aviation, hotels, and tourism. Public fund products represented by the Guangfa Ruiyi Leading Fund even made heavy allocations; star fund manager Lin Yingrui continued to buy into the consumption-recovery theme. The fund’s top six heavy holdings are all aviation stocks, so it reaped substantial gains in this rebound.

As for the current rebound in Hong Kong stocks spreading from local strength to the broader market, many fund managers believe this is related to confidence restoration after undervaluation.

A consumption-industry fund manager in South China said that, at present, southbound capital’s allocation is no longer limited to a small number of popular themes; coverage continues to expand, reflecting that institutional capital’s confidence in Hong Kong stocks is being restored. The core support lies in the fact that the overall valuation level of Hong Kong stocks is still in a historically low range, with standout value-for-money on the allocation side. Moreover, the February CPI data further validates the trend of domestic demand recovery, providing support for the rebound rally to spread to the consumption and services sectors, and ultimately forming a situation in which technology, consumption, healthcare, and resource cycles move together.

However, public fund practitioners believe the Hong Kong stock rebound may be difficult to achieve in one step, and going forward, attention will still need to focus on the realization of earnings.

“Multiple sentiment indicators have already released bottoming signals, but the sustainability of the rebound still depends on earnings verification.” A research analyst at a fund company in Shenzhen also said that the current style in Hong Kong stocks is rotating rapidly in response to marginal changes in the Middle East geopolitical conflict: when conflict intensifies, defensive assets take the lead; when the situation eases, technology growth leads. Whether the market can continue to strengthen depends on two key variables going forward: first, whether geopolitical risk further eases and brings overseas capital back; second, whether earnings can deliver on the economic cycle expectations and provide clearer allocation cues for capital.

(Editor: Xu Nannan)

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