Hong Kong's stock market ended higher Friday although some major companies such as Alibaba saw downturns as investors focused on the AI spending revealed in recent earnings reports, said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).
The benchmark Hang Seng Index was up 1.21 percent to close at 26,009.46 points, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.01 percent rising to 8,634.34 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index increased by 1.40 percent to finish the week at 4,766.16 points.
"This week in Hong Kong, it's been pretty much all about earnings. Today the Hang Seng added 1.2 percent. The big one we were watching today was Alibaba, which initially rose pretty strongly on a quarterly revenue gain of 9 percent but ended the session 2.5 percent lower. The total revenue increase was a little bit above the consensus estimate as well thanks to strong demand for AI services that boosted Alibaba's cloud business. This is a case where investors are looking at the AI infrastructure spending that companies are doing and wondering if that's the best use of their profits. Others we saw this week were Baidu and Kuaishou, both of which fell following the release of their quarterly reports, which showed revenue and profits down while AI spending spiked. So, in Hong Kong it's less about valuations and more about spending," said Pope.
Hong Kong stocks end higher Friday, investors focus on companies' AI spending: analyst
