Investing

Hong Kong Gains, Raimondo Meets With China’s Ambassador To US

Published

August 23, 2023

Key News

Asian equities were mostly higher overnight though Mainland China was lower on lower volumes.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met Xie Feng, China’s current Ambassador to the US, in preparation for her four-day visit to China next week. Xie Feng urged the Commerce Secretary to help “overcome difficulties in the same boat.” He referenced global economic challenges and noted that the US and China can work constructively to solve them. More green shoots!

In other diplomatic news, the US removed 27 China-based companies from its “unverified list,” which notes companies that import sensitive materials and technologies from the US for which the end-use of such goods cannot be verified. More green shoots!

Meanwhile, the US media continues to herald an impending economic crisis in China, which is mostly falling on deaf ears as the market is more intelligent. China’s government bonds have outperformed US treasuries by nearly 15% since the end of 2020, using representative ETFs and on a total return basis. If what the media says is true, this would be the first time in history that an emerging market’s sovereign debt beats US treasuries as a crisis unfolds. Does the media know something markets do not? That is unlikely. The most likely explanation is that horror stories about Ukraine, COVID, or inflation no longer sell, and they needed to pivot to sell news.

Game developer NetEase reports earnings tomorrow. Gaming revenues were up significantly for Tencent, but Bilibili noted delays. It will be interesting to see how NetEase’s launches have been faring.

The Hang Seng and Hang Seng Tech indexes both closed higher by +0.31% and +0.20%, respectively, on volume that decreased -18% from yesterday. Short sale turnover was also -8% lower from yesterday. Mainland investors bought a net $398 million worth of Hong Kong stocks overnight via Southbound Stock Connect. The top-performing sectors overnight were energy, which gained +1.29%, communication services, which gained +0.30%, and information technology, which gained +0.29%. Meanwhile, the worst-performing sectors were materials, which fell -0.87%, utilities, which fell -0.84%, and real estate, which fell -0.70%.

Shanghai, Shenzhen, and the STAR Board -1.34%, -1.96%, and -2.40%, respectively, on volume that decreased -14% from yesterday. Foreign investors sold a net -$1.3 billion worth of Mainland stocks overnight via Northbound Stock Connect. The top-performing sectors overnight were energy, which gained +1.07%, utilities, which fell -0.61%, and financials, which fell -0.96%. Meanwhile, the worst-performing sectors were information technology, which fell -2.87%, communication services, which fell -2.04%, and materials, which fell -1.87%.