■ Chinese tech companies slumped recently, burdened by the prospect of more government scrutiny, but they rallied for a second day on Tuesday.
‘Bottom-fishing’ investors buy the dip in wake of increased oversight
Chinese technology stocks rallied for a second day as bargain hunters returned, emboldened by Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s share buyback and strong results from JD.com, which drew Cathie Wood back into the market.
The Hang Seng Tech Index advanced more than seven per cent, adding to a two per cent gain on Monday, after a fiveweek rout that took the gauge to the lowest level since its inception last year.
Heavyweights Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. climbed 8.8 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively. In New York, The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index jumped 5.2 per cent at the open.
While there’s no indication that the nation’s increased oversight on tech and other fast-growing businesses will ease, the absence of new initiatives in recent days opened the door to investors who see longer-term value in China stocks. Some are also taking a cue from technical charts that show the index plunged into oversold territory last week.
“We are seeing lots of bottomfishing activities in the market, including strong buying of Tencent and Alibaba,” said Jackson Wong, asset management director at Amber Hill Capital Ltd. “Companies that have fallen the most and prove to have solid fundamentals will lead the rebound.”
Wood’s Ark Investment Management bought American depository receipts of JD.com on Monday after its quarterly sales beat estimates. The purchases by the thematic tech-focused global investment firm come after it had earlier this year reduced its China holdings to a negligible amount.
The e-commerce company’s revenue jumped 26 per cent in the three months through June
and said it didn’t see a major impact coming from new curbs on data collection and usage. JD.com shares closed 15 per cent higher on Tuesday, their biggest gain ever.
The gain in Tencent stock Tuesday followed its buyback of 230,000 of its own shares on Monday. While Alibaba’s advance came after it dropped to a record low in Hong Kong on Monday. New York-traded shares in the three companies also rose on Tuesday.
“Valuations look appealing if investors want to hold for six months or longer,” said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.
The buy-the-dip crowd spurred a record inflow into the $5.35-billion (U.S.) KraneShares
CSI China Internet ETF late last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Investors poured more than $530 million into the fund on Friday, which has attracted about $4.4 billion dollars in inflows this year despite sinking 41 per cent.
MSCI Inc., the world’s biggest index provider, shook off concerns about the “investability” of Chinese stocks, citing previous instances of resilience in the nation’s markets.
Regulatory compliance has weighed on China “every three, four, five years and obviously the markets have sold off at the time. But very quickly afterwards, the markets have recovered and gone through to new heights,” MSCI Inc. chair and CEO Henry Fernandez told Bloomberg Television.
That’s a view echoed by Gabriela Santos, a global market strategist at JPMorgan Chase’s asset management unit.
“It takes time to rebuild confidence, but three months out Chinese equities tend to trend up,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Saturday.
Veteran fund manager Hugh Young of Aberdeen Standard Investments said this month that his firm bought the dip in Tencent and kept most of its other big-tech holdings largely unchanged.