Since the start of the year, global markets have experienced a notable shift in style. So-called "old economy assets," long the subject of market jokes, have staged a temporary comeback. In the U.S. stock market, this change is almost visibly apparent. While Nasdaq tech giants like Nvidia and Microsoft have shown volatile trading at high levels, the traditionally blue-chip-dominated Dow Jones Industrial Average has bucked the trend to hit a new record high. A group of traditional value assets, humorously dubbed "old economy stocks" by the market, have recently returned to the spotlight. This style shift has simultaneously transmitted to Hong Kong and A-shares markets.
In A-shares, the consumer sector has led the way out of a trough. The baijiu index recorded five gains in six trading days, with leading consumer company Kweichow Moutai seeing a significant surge in its share price, rising over 14% across six sessions. Some Hong Kong-listed consumer stocks have also warmed up. The Hong Kong tea beverage sector showed strength today, with Gu Ming briefly rising over 5% to a new all-time high in its share price, and Cha Ba Dao gaining over 5%. This helped drive the E Fund Hong Kong Stock Connect Consumption ETF higher, with a year-to-date increase exceeding 9%.
On the news front, early this morning, Alibaba's Qianwen APP launched its "Spring Festival 3 Billion RMB Freebies" campaign, employing a "milk tea offensive" to invite users nationwide to experience AI-powered shopping. The campaign quickly ignited participation enthusiasm, with orders placed through the Qianwen APP surpassing 1 million within three hours of launch. Several milk tea stores even opted to temporarily close due to the surge in orders.
Furthermore, the approach of the "longest-ever Spring Festival holiday" is near. The industry widely believes that the 9-day super-long holiday is expected to boost a recovery in service consumption such as gold retail, travel, and catering. Recently, the market has shown a rotation phenomenon, with some capital flowing out of previously high-flying tech "new economy" stocks and into "old economy" related assets like consumption and property.
From a liquidity perspective, the E Fund Hong Kong Stock Connect Consumption ETF has seen a net inflow of 504 million yuan over the past 10 days, with its latest size reaching 1.434 billion yuan, ranking first among similar products. This ETF supports T+0 trading and has a total expense ratio of 0.2%, the lowest among all Hong Kong consumption-themed ETFs in the market. The underlying index of the E Fund Hong Kong Stock Connect Consumption ETF covers traditional service consumption leaders like travel and catering, includes growth-oriented consumer assets such as trendy toys and gold jewelry, and also incorporates high-dividend targets like sportswear and major home appliances. The index currently trades at an overall PE ratio of approximately 18.25x, with a dividend yield of about 3.56%. Pop Mart, as the largest constituent with a weight exceeding 12%, holds the highest weighting among Hong Kong consumption ETFs.
Guoyuan Securities believes that new consumption sectors have shown bright performance, and policy support for service consumption is expected to provide ongoing catalysts in 2026. While the discretionary consumption sector overall showed relatively weak stock performance in 2025, sub-sectors within new consumption achieved notable gains, particularly demonstrating strong performance in the first half of the year. Annual retail sales saw moderate growth, with service retail growth outperforming goods retail. Among goods categories, necessity consumption grew steadily while discretionary consumer goods showed divergent performance, with communication equipment, cultural and office supplies, home furnishings, household appliances and audio-video equipment, and gold, silver, and jewelry categories leading the growth. Service consumption has currently become a key driver for boosting overall consumption, and policy support is anticipated to continue providing catalysts in 2026.