Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rebounds on tech, chip gains: analyst

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.34 percent Monday, fueled primarily by semiconductor gains, while investors are braced for a packed week of earnings as a number of major firms release their latest quarterly reports, an analyst said.

At the end of the trading session, the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 1.34 percent to close at 25,453.23 points, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 1.19 percent to end at 8,439.97 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index increased by 1.58 percent to end at 4,782.03 points.

Recapping the session, China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope highlighted the key movements in the market, with a notable jump for the Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and the e-commerce and retail giant JD.com showing a modest recovery.

"Hong Kong's rebound was looking pretty strong today. There too, of course, semiconductors were the big gainers. SMIC rose 6.1 percent. It's now gained about 13.6 percent over the last five sessions. And late last week it reported strong results and said it was upping its prices. JD.com started off lower but ended up rising 2.5 percent today, recovering a little bit from Friday's more than 10 percent loss, which came after the e-commerce giant reported its first quarterly revenue decline since its 2014 listing. Profit was actually up though, so it wasn't all doom and gloom," he said.

Looking ahead, Pope said investors will be keeping close tabs on a series of earnings reports due this week, with tech giants Xiaomi and Baidu as well as the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), who operate Asia's third-largest stock market, among those set to reveal their latest financial results.

"Speaking of quarterly results, it's another big week ahead in Hong Kong as far as that's concerned. Xiaomi and Baidu are scheduled for tomorrow, the index provider HKEX on Wednesday, and Ping An Insurance and NetEase later on in the week. That HKEX result will be a particularly interesting one to watch, I think, because of the pace of listings we've seen so far in Hong Kong this year and what impact that's going to have on earnings," he said.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rebounds on tech, chip gains: analyst

Global food production could take a severe hit from the twin shocks of shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and a potentially historic Super El Nino, raising the risk of a worldwide food crisis, a senior JP Morgan economist warned.

In a report titled "Food Security Is National Security: A Compounding Storm," Nora Szentivanyi, JP Morgan's London-based senior global economist, said the combination could cut crop yields, constrain farming, and keep food inflation elevated through the first half of 2027. This year's global energy supply shock, she added, could magnify the inflationary impact of a super El Nino.

Global food inflation is expected to climb from 2.8 percent in the first half of 2026 to 5 percent in the first half of 2027, lifting overall inflation by 0.6 percentage points, she noted in the report published by JPMorgan.

The impact is likely to be deeply uneven, with emerging economies in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America bearing the brunt because their agricultural sectors are more sensitive to weather shifts and food makes up a larger share of household spending, according to the report.

The report calls for more help for vulnerable groups already facing food shortages. It cites data showing that some 645 million people worldwide were going hungry last year, while about 2.1 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, equating to roughly 25.8 percent of the global population.

Other major institutions have sounded similar alarms. Research teams at Goldman Sachs and HSBC have flagged rising global food inflation risks, and a recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization report showed the Global Food Price Index rose month-on-month in July at its fastest pace since January 2023.

JP Morgan warns of possible global food crisis due to Hormuz Strait disruptions, El Nino