Hong Kong stocks closed higher on Friday, driven by tech giants, after China pledged to step up efforts to achieve technological self-reliance and bolster its domestic market over the next five years. The advance came ahead of a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US leader Donald Trump next week.
The Hang Seng Index rose 0.7%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 1.8%.
In terms of star stocks, Hua Hong Semi up 14%; SMIC up 8%; CATL, Bilibili up 3%; Alibaba, Kuaishou rose 2%; Meituan, Tencent rose 1%; Li Auto, Xiaomi fell 2%.
China’s policymakers had set major economic targets for the next five years, including achieving significant progress on high-quality growth and a substantial improvement in the strength and self-reliance of science and technology, according to a communique released after the Communist Party concluded the fourth plenum of its powerful Central Committee on Thursday.
The communique’s release came before a meeting between Xi and Trump scheduled for Thursday next week – their first face-to-face encounter since Trump returned to the White House in January. They are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, from trade tariffs and export controls to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The 15th five-year plan reaffirms technology self-reliance and innovation as core priorities, and underscores the need to maintain a ‘reasonable share’ of the manufacturing sector in gross domestic product,” said Morgan Stanley economists led by Robin Xing in a report. “This means the 15th five-year plan will tilt China’s industrial policy further to ecosystem-driven strategies, AI-as-infrastructure and hardened industrial budgets to promote productivity – not just scale, with focus to tackle supply chain bottlenecks in the face of rising US tech barriers.”