Northbound funds | Northbound trading realized net selling of 1.601 billion yuan, with the new hot products of POP MART (09992) attracting over 700 million Hong Kong dollars in raise and Alibaba (09988) faced nearly 1.5 billion yuan in selling.

On January 23, the Hong Kong stock market saw a net sell of 1.601 billion Hong Kong dollars by the Northbound funds, with 560 million Hong Kong dollars net sold by the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and 1.041 billion Hong Kong dollars net sold by the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. The top stocks bought by the Northbound funds were POP MART (09992), XIAOMI-W (01810), and TENCENT (00700). The top stocks sold by the Northbound funds were BABA-W (09988), China Mobile Limited (00941), and YOFC (06869). The most active Northbound stocks in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect were POP MART (09992), which saw a net buy of 747 million Hong Kong dollars. On January 22, POP MART released a limited edition blind box series for Valentine's Day in 2026, which quickly sold out upon release. In addition, the PUCKY and New Year Horse Power series by POP MART were also well received. The company recently conducted buybacks on January 19th and 21st, spending over 300 million Hong Kong dollars, showing confidence in its long-term development. XIAOMI-W (01810) saw a net buy of 608 million Hong Kong dollars. On January 22, Xiaomi Group announced its plan to buy back up to 25 billion Hong Kong dollars of Class B ordinary shares. The buyback plan will start on January 23 and will continue until the day before the 2026 shareholders' anniversary meeting, reaching 25 billion Hong Kong dollars in buyback total, or an earlier termination of the agreement. Xiaomi Group believes that implementing an automatic stock buyback plan can demonstrate confidence in its business prospects and is in the best interest of the company and shareholders. The company will subsequently cancel the shares repurchased under the automatic stock buyback plan. TENCENT (00700) saw a net buy of 240 million Hong Kong dollars. In terms of news, Morgan Stanley released a research report stating that Tencent's core engines in the WeChat ecosystem, advertising, and gaming business still have resilience, and the impact of artificial intelligence on stock price trends is expected to exceed profit growth expectations. Compared to its peers, Tencent's generative AI layout is still in its early stages in terms of model display and independent application power, as management prioritizes reliability, compliance, and ecosystem fit, rather than scale expansion. This positioning prevents its stock price from being overly "AI premium", and if the company can demonstrate clear execution and product-market fit this year, it will create value uptrends. In the commercial space trend divergence, Hainan Drinda New Energy Technology (02865) saw a net buy of 52.3628 million Hong Kong dollars, while Goldwind Science & Technology (02208) saw a net sell of 123 million Hong Kong dollars. In the news, Elon Musk's latest remarks sparked the space photovoltaic industry chain. It was reported that Musk stated that SpaceX and Tesla are synchronously advancing the capacity expansion of CECEP Solar Energy to achieve an annual manufacturing capacity of 100GW within the next three years. At the end of December last year, Hainan Drinda New Energy Technology and Shangyi Solar officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement, with Hainan Drinda New Energy Technology investing in Shangyi Solar as a strategic shareholder, focusing on the application of perovskite battery technology in space energy. The company disclosed earlier that it plans to inject 30 million yuan in cash, acquire a 16.67% stake of Shanghai Xingyi Xineng as its second largest shareholder, and establish a joint venture company specializing in CPI film, CPI film combined with crystalline silicon cells products, entering into the low orbit and space photovoltaic market. CNOOC (00883) saw a net buy of 32.6877 million Hong Kong dollars again. In the news, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated in its highly anticipated monthly report that due to improving global economic prospects and lower oil prices, it has raised its forecast for global oil demand growth. However, it also warned that there will still be oversupply in the near future, and the oversupply is sufficient to offset any disruption effects from geopolitical risks. The IEA expects global oil demand to increase by 930,000 barrels per day this year, higher than the previous forecast of 860,000 barrels per day. BABA-W (09988) saw a net sell of 1.49 billion Hong Kong dollars. According to media reports citing sources, Alibaba is preparing to proceed with the independent listing of its AI chip manufacturing company "T-Head." Alibaba plans to reorganize it into a business entity partly owned by employees, and then seek an initial public offering (IPO), but the specific listing time has not been determined, and the action is still in the preparation stage. It is reported that T-Head is a semiconductor chip company established by Alibaba in 2018, integrating the teams from Zhongtian Microsystems acquired by Alibaba and Alibaba DAMO Academy, focusing on AI chips and RISC-V ecosystem technology. LAOPU GOLD (06181) hit a new high since October last year, with a net sell of 66.867 million Hong Kong dollars. According to Daiwa's research report, based on recent telephone conferences with management, they have reiterated their goal of achieving a 40% gross profit margin this year, although Daiwa expects the gross profit margin to decrease in the second half of 2025. Daiwa stated that assuming a linear increase in gold prices of 10% on top of the 12% increase this year to date and the company committing to maintaining a gross profit margin of 40% or more, estimated that LAOPU GOLD would need to raise its gold price selling price by more than 35% this year. This is far higher than current investor expectations, and if gold prices remain strong, there is significant upward revenue risk this year. Additionally, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981) saw a net buy of 25.7139 million Hong Kong dollars, while China Mobile Limited (00941) and YOFC (06869) saw net sells of 622 million and 138 million Hong Kong dollars, respectively. China Life Insurance (02628) also saw a net sell of 5.8174 million Hong Kong dollars.