Hong Kong's三大股指 ended Wednesday's session with divergent performances. The Hang Seng Index inched up 0.07% to close at 25,471.15 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index declined 0.9%. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.16%.
In sector movements, technology and internet stocks saw more losses than gains, with Alibaba climbing over 3%, Lenovo dropping more than 5%, and both Meituan and Bilibili falling over 2%. Pork-related equities led the gains, as Muyuan Foods advanced more than 4%. The biopharmaceutical sector remained active, with WuXi Biologics surging over 4%. Conversely, chip stocks weakened, with Hua Hong Semiconductor tumbling over 7%.
Where to begin with market insights
Pork stocks outperformed, highlighted by Muyuan Foods' rise of more than 4%. The domestic live hog market continues its robust upward trend, with the latest average price hitting 10.86 yuan per kilogram, up 4.22% week-on-week. Prices in several regions, including Hubei, Jiangxi, and Beijing, have surpassed the 11 yuan per kilogram threshold. Huafu Securities noted that looking ahead, the wide price gap between standard and overweight hogs creates an incentive for farmers to hold back supply and increase weight. However, high summer temperatures significantly constrain weight-gain efficiency, limiting near-term supply pressure. Combined with rising consumption after the start of autumn, hog prices are expected to remain firm with a upward bias, staying within a seasonal rebound channel.
What drives the biopharma rally
The biopharmaceutical sector showed strong activity, with WuXi Biologics gaining over 4%. Everbright Securities highlighted that policy dividends and industrial prosperity are aligning. During the interim reporting season, innovative drug companies are entering a phase of performance validation, and the brokerage recommends focusing on the commercialization sales of leading innovative drug firms. The sector's fundamentals are shifting from valuation-driven to earnings-driven. On the policy front, the new edition of the Essential Medicines List takes effect in September, marking the first batch inclusion of innovative drugs, which opens up grassroots market opportunities. On the industrial side, major international conferences such as WCLC in September and ESMO in October will see dense readouts of key clinical data for domestic new drugs, validating global competitiveness and boosting valuations. Coupled with active business development (BD) transactions, the industry's reversal trend continues to solidify.
Why are chip stocks under pressure
Chip stocks weakened, with Hua Hong Semiconductor falling over 7%. Sinolink Securities pointed out that AI is driving the semiconductor test equipment industry's cycle from traditional cyclical recovery toward structural growth. According to SEMI forecasts, global semiconductor test equipment sales are projected to grow 31.0% year-on-year to $15.3 billion by 2026, reaching $20.8 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21% from 2025 to 2028. Among these, SoC testers benefit from capacity expansion in high-end logic chips such as GPUs and ASICs, while memory testers are supported by increasing HBM stack layers, interface speeds, and quality requirements.