Hong Kong stocks rose, bucking losses in regional markets, on speculation global funds will switch from expensive US tech companies after Chinese start-up DeepSeek sparked a sell-off on Wall Street with its popular low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) model.
The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 20,235.11 at 10.07am local time, adding to a 0.7 per cent advance on Monday. Baidu jumped 4 per cent to HK$88.20 and smartphone and car maker Xiaomi added 1.9 per cent to HK$37.80. Tencent advanced 1.2 per cent to HK$400.20 while Alibaba Group increased 1 per cent to HK$88.15.
Limiting gains, China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC lost 3.3 per cent to HK$36.90 while PC maker Lenovo Group dropped 2.3 per cent to HK$9.27.
“Given the rise of DeepSeek, the market speculates that fewer high-end chips will be needed in the future,” Kelvin Lau, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets, said in a report. “China will continue to boost their [semiconductor] production capabilities, necessitating more domestic substitution.”
Elsewhere, major Asian markets weakened. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.7 per cent.
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