[ET Net News Agency, 05 August 2024] The Hang Seng Index closed at 16,908 in the morning
session, down 36 points or 0.2%, with main board turnover exceeding HKD 60.8 billion. The
Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was at 5,950, down 24 points or 0.4%. The Hang Seng Tech
Index was at 3,389, up 3 points or 0.1%.
The three largest traded stocks on the Hang Seng Index were Tencent (00700), CNOOC
(00883) and HSBC (00005); Tencent reported HKD 359.2, up HKD 1, or 0.3%, with a turnover
of HKD 3.349 billion; CNOOC reported HKD 19.36, down HKD 1.04, or 5.1%, with a turnover of
HKD 2.177 billion; HSBC reported HKD 63.35, down HKD 2.4 or 3.7%, with a turnover of HKD
1.791 billion. The three largest traded stocks on the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index
were Tencent, CNOOC and Meituan (03690); Meituan reported at HKD 106.7, up HKD 2.7 or
2.6%, with a turnover of HKD 1.722 billion. The three largest traded stocks on the Hang
Seng Tech Index were Tencent, Meituan and Alibaba (09988); Alibaba reported HKD 75.35, no
change, up HKD 0 or 0%, with a turnover of HKD 1.347 billion.

"Wan Kong Shing: Hong Kong stocks are relatively strong but have not escaped the downturn"

Worries about the U.S. economic recession have intensified, and the market also expects
that the Bank of Japan may raise interest rates in October. Asian stock markets continued
last week's decline and fell further this morning. The Nikkei Stock Average fell as much
as 2,540 points or about 7% in half a day. South Korea Seoul's KOSPI temporarily fell by
as much as 157 points, or more than 5.8%, and Taiwan's weighted average index fell by as
much as 1,712 points, or 7.9%, crossing the 20,000 mark. On the other hand, Hong Kong
stocks were relatively strong. After opening 268 points lower, there was support, and the
half-day decline narrowed to less than 100 points.
Wan Kong Shing, the Chief Investment Officer of iFAST Global Markets, told ET Net News
Agency that anticipation of interest rate cuts will weaken the U.S dollars and strengthen
the Hong Kong dollars. The relative strength of the Hong Kong dollars is theoretically
more beneficial to Hong Kong stocks. Compared with other stock markets in Asia, Hong Kong
stocks have "not risen at all." As of now when global stock markets are facing setbacks, a
relatively strong situation of HK stock market has emerged. In fact, there is already
"nothing left to sell." He also believes that although Hong Kong stocks outperformed
strongly today, given the same fundamentals, Hong Kong stocks will still be subject to
factors such as the weakening Mainland China economy and will be difficult to rise
sharply. The Hang Seng Index is expected to range from 16,600 to 17,400 this week, and it
cannot get rid of the "one wave is lower than the other" trend.

"Real estate stocks are hard to rise after speculation on interest rate cuts"

In anticipation of U.S. interest rate cuts, Centaline Property's top ten housing
property recorded 11 transactions over the past weekend, a week-on-week increase of 83.3%
or 5 transactions, hitting a new high in the past 14 weeks. Local real estate stocks
bucked the market trend and performed well this morning. Wharf REIC (01997) and New World
Dev (00017) rose by more than 7% at most in half a day, and both became the best
performing blue chips in half a day. However, Wan Kong Shing admitted frankly that the
rebound in real estate stocks was mainly due to speculation about interest rate cuts. The
number of transactions has indeed rebounded in the short term, but he is not optimistic
about the long-term sustainability because the local desire to buy properties is still
sluggish. He pointed out that the current real estate stocks are not completely worthless
for investing, but they can only be speculated by buying a little bit. It is expected that
New World will take this opportunity to challenge the 100-day moving average of about HKD
8.2, and it is not advisable to buy too many.