Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed higher on Monday, driven by Chinese tech firm Baidu and home appliance stocks, according to China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst Timothy Pope.
Hong Kong's stock market ended higher with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 1.57 percent to close at 23,026.68 points.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 1.94 percent to end at 7,605.34 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 3.23 percent to end at 4,393.01 points.
Pope recapped the session's performance.
"Baidu was really helping to lift the Hang Seng today. The index was up by 1.6 percent. Baidu itself was up 5.6 percent. This is because its chip arm Kunlunxin was reported by The Information to be targeting a 50 billion U.S. dollar valuation in its upcoming Hong Kong IPO. Now that would make it more valuable than Baidu, which is current valued around 34 billion. But if this 50 billion number really is the target, it represents an absolutely mind-blowing valuation growth in just the last six months, when a private funding round valued Kunlunxin six months ago at 3 billion dollars, according to Reuters. Fifty billion isn't necessarily unreasonable if you're comparing sales multiples with other prominent Chinese chip companies like Cambricon here in Shanghai, but it certainly got the markets pretty excited in Hong Kong today," said Pope.
Meanwhile, the sweltering temperatures that have swept Europe are driving a strong upturn in air conditioner sales, with many Chinese brands meeting the demand.
"Another one worth noting in Hong Kong was the appliance maker Midea, up 4.6 percent with the sales of air conditioners really surging, particularly in Europe right now as the continent swelters through that horrible heatwave. We saw Hisense, Haier and others up today as well," he said.
Baidu, Chinese home appliance stocks drive Hong Kong stocks higher: analyst
