Hong Kong chip stocks extended their rally on Monday morning, riding a global semiconductor wave after Wall Street’s Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged last week, and continued momentum in China’s home-grown AI chip sector kept investor appetite elevated.
Montage Technology led the pack with a 15.81 per cent jump to HK$435 as of 10.35am, followed by Nasino, which increased 14.29 per cent to HK$194.3. Meanwhile, GigaDevice rose 9.59 per cent to HK$537, SMIC added 4.09 per cent and Hua Hong Semiconductor climbed 5.2 per cent.
Gains in the sector bucked the overall market trend as the benchmark Hang Seng Index dipped 0.55 per cent to 26,246.84, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.74 per cent to 5,064.88.
The rally drew fuel from a strong signal that Beijing is committed to domestic chip self-sufficiency. State television footage broadcast Friday showed Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang visiting Huawei Technologies’ chip research and development centre in Shanghai, where he held talks with the company’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei.
Ding called on leading tech enterprises to push not just incremental innovation, what he described as being on a scale “from one to 100”, but also dare to pursue original breakthroughs “from zero to 1”. He urged innovators to solve technological problems at the foundational level and to translate research outcomes into real-world applications.
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, the benchmark gauge of the world’s largest chip companies including Nvidia, increased more than 11 per cent last week, as easing US-China trade tensions lifted the outlook for global chip demand. US President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing for a high-stakes state visit with President Xi Jinping from Wednesday to Friday.