Hong Kong shares edge up 3 points at noon, tech index falls 1%
Hong Kong stocks recovered from a 140-point drop to close the morning session 3 points higher, while the technology index fell 1 per cent. Auto and AI model shares led declines, while chip and pharmaceutical stocks rose.
Hong Kong shares staged a midday recovery after a sharp morning drop, with the Hang Seng Index closing the morning session at 23,529 points, up 3 points from the previous close. The index had fallen as much as 140 points earlier, touching a low of 23,385 points. Turnover on the main board for the morning session exceeded HK$87.7 billion.
The technology index fell 1 per cent to 3,828 points. All major Chinese tech stocks known as ATMXJ declined, with JD.com and Alibaba each dropping nearly 2 per cent.
Shares in automakers and artificial-intelligence large-model companies suffered larger falls. XPeng, Nio, Li Auto, MiniMax and Zhipu each fell between 3 per cent and about 4 per cent. Mainland Chinese property stocks also weakened.
Chip and pharmaceutical stocks bucked the trend. BeiGene, WuXi Biologics and WuXi PharmaTech rose nearly 5 per cent or more, making them the three best-performing blue-chip stocks. Semiconductor maker SMIC gained more than 2 per cent.