Hong Kong stocks start August on a high note, HSI gains 0.48% to reclaim 26,000
Taylor Wilson
The Hang Seng Index rose 0.48% to 26,009 on August's first trading day, reclaiming the 26,000 mark; Alibaba alone contributed 131 points, while solar and nuclear stocks surged on policy catalysts — but memory-chip names slumped as Korean equities sold off hard.
How much did the market gain, and where did the money go?
The Hang Seng Index closed up 124.97 points (+0.48%) at 26,009.4; the H-share Index rose 0.46%, and the Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.96%.
Total turnover hit HK$255.2 billion, moderately above average.
This means → the market leaned bullish, but gains were concentrated in a few heavyweight stocks and policy-driven sectors — this was not a broad-based rally.
How did one Alibaba stock carry most of the index?
Alibaba-W (09988) surged 7.01% to HK$125.2 on turnover of HK$23.9 billion, single-handedly contributing 130.61 points to the HSI — more than the index's entire 125-point gain for the day.
In plain terms = strip out Alibaba and the HSI actually finished slightly negative; the "August opening rally" was essentially a one-stock show.
The catalyst: Alibaba released its Qwen 3.8-Max large language model with 2.4 trillion parameters. Benchmarks showed its coding and general-agent capabilities on par with Anthropic's Claude Fable 5, with some metrics exceeding it, plus autonomous execution in long-horizon tasks such as chip design and quantitative research.
Why did solar stocks suddenly surge across the board?
Xinyi Solar (00968) jumped 13.41%, GCL Technology rose 11.48%, Flat Glass (06865) gained 11.22%, and Xinte Energy climbed 8.25%. The polysilicon futures front-month contract hit limit up in the afternoon at RMB 35,890/tonne.
Two policy moves landed simultaneously: China's market regulator conducted price-compliance guidance for the solar industry in Yancheng, pushing a shift from "competing on price" to "competing on quality"; separately, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association published a group standard on industry-wide cost-accounting rules.
This means → regulators are actively putting the brakes on the solar price war while closing the door on below-cost dumping. For the sector, the short-term read is a sentiment boost; the medium-term question is whether enforcement will be strong enough to reshape competitive dynamics.
What triggered the nuclear-power rally?
Dongfang Electric (01072) rose 9.29%, Shanghai Electric gained 5.59%, and CGN Power climbed 2.77%.
The driver: on July 31 China's State Council approved four nuclear projects totalling eight reactor units — at Zhejiang Jinqimen, Liaoning Zhuanghe, Guangdong Taipingling, and Shandong Laiyang — with estimated total investment exceeding RMB 170 billion.
In plain terms = this is the largest single-batch nuclear approval in recent years, signalling that nuclear power's priority within China's energy mix is rising fast.
What stood out in AI applications and profit-alert movers?
AI application names extended gains: Minglue Technology-W surged 15.62%, Kuaishou-W rose 3.02%, and Kingdee International added 3.9%. On the news front, MiniMax released its multimodal model H3, ByteDance launched video-creation model Seedance 2.5, DeepSeek-V4-Flash went live, and OpenAI cut pricing for GPT-5.6 Terra and Luna API calls.
Profit-alert movers: Angelalign (06699) jumped 17.96% after guiding H1 revenue growth of 41.9–43.1% y/y and net-profit growth of 69–78.9%; Xunce (03317) rallied 13.53% on H1 revenue growth of 389% and a swing to profit; Legend Holdings (03396) climbed 10.56% after guiding H1 net-profit growth of at least 186%.
This reflects a market that is paying steep short-term premiums for stocks with concrete earnings delivery — a positive profit alert was almost a same-day price guarantee.
Why did memory-chip stocks buck the trend and sell off?
CSOP 2x Leveraged SK hynix (07709) plunged 16.65%, Montage Technology dropped 7.51%, and GigaDevice fell 7.49%.
The direct cause: South Korea's KOSPI index slumped 5.13% on the day, with SK hynix and Samsung Electronics both falling nearly 9% — panic sentiment transmitted directly to Hong Kong memory names.
This means → Hong Kong's memory-chip sector is currently pricing off Korean equities in near-real time. Whether Korean stocks stabilise is the key variable for the tech chain's next move. Separately, Shenzhou International fell 3.01% (dragging the HSI by 1.71 points), Li Auto dropped 2.9% (dragging 3.31 points), and aluminium, coal, and gaming stocks softened across the board.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.