Northbound funds | Northbound trading recorded a net sell of 5.962 billion yuan, with Northbound investors increasing their holdings in technology stocks while selling hardware stocks. The Tracker Fund of Hong Kong (02800) saw a net sell of over 5.1 billion Hong Kong dollars for the entire day.

On July 20th, the Hong Kong stock market saw net sales of 5.962 billion Hong Kong dollars by Northbound trading. Among them, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect saw net sales of 3.165 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect saw net sales of 2.798 billion Hong Kong dollars. The top stocks that Northbound trading bought the most were BABA-W (09988), NTES (09999), and MEITUAN-W (03690). The top stocks that Northbound trading sold the most were TRACKER FUND OF HONG KONG (02800), CSOP Hang Seng TECH Index ETF (03033), and Tencent (00700). Active trading stocks in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect BABA-W (09988) had net purchases of 1.863 billion Hong Kong dollars. On July 19th, Alibaba released its flagship large model Qwen3.8 Max preview version, with a parameter scale of up to 2.4 trillion, positioning it as "one of the most powerful models today, comparable to leading cutting-edge AI models," second only to Anthropic's Fable 5 globally. At the same time, Alibaba promised to "soon" open the complete model weights. NTES (09999) had net purchases of 1.408 billion Hong Kong dollars. Zhongjin released a research report stating that the overall outlook for the second quarter is healthy, with gains expected from deferred income from the PC version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" and other income sources. Considering that the flagship product's new version and activity update points are nearing the end of June, more incremental contributions are expected to be reflected in the third quarter. In terms of gross profit margin, benefiting from the increase in self-developed high gross margin PC game revenue and optimization of channel sharing costs, it is expected that the second quarter will still maintain a high level. MEITUAN-W (03690) had net purchases of 471 million Hong Kong dollars. Meituan announced the formal open source of all model weights, inference engines, and core technology documents for LongCat-2.0. Citi released a research report stating that Meituan has officially open-sourced the trillion-parameter large model LongCat-2.0, and believes that this strategic move will further consolidate its leading position in the local lifestyle service market. The model's advanced Agentic architecture will enhance internal R&D efficiency and attract external developers. CNOOC (00883) had net purchases of 39.54 million Hong Kong dollars. Ping An Securities stated that the short-term escalation of conflict between the U.S. and Iran, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the recovery in seasonal demand for refined oil products are pushing oil prices back up. However, they believe that the intensity and sustainability of this round of conflict may be weaker than in the initial stage of the conflict, with the overall geopolitical risk pointing downwards and Brent oil prices may return to around $80 per barrel in the future. AI hardware stocks continued to be sold off, with Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor (01347), KB LAMINATES (01888), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981), and YOFC (06869) facing net sales of 96.29 million, 290 million, 380 million, and 468 million Hong Kong dollars respectively. This comes after the South Korean regulatory authorities took action to clean up the leverage ETF mess in chip stocks. In the latest report released by JPMorgan's global market strategy team, they pointed out that the deleveraging process initiated in the U.S. in June is still ongoing, with further deleveraging potential in leveraged stock ETFs, options markets, and margin accounts, which will continue to suppress stock market performance in the coming months. CSOP Hang Seng TECH Index ETF (03033) and TRACKER FUND OF HONG KONG (02800) each faced net sales of 1.278 billion and 5.185 billion Hong Kong dollars. Soochow stated that the Hong Kong stock market is currently in a period of window dressing, with short-term risk appetite restoration driving index rebound. However, the sustainability of the rebound in the Hong Kong stock market still faces disturbances. Huatai believes that the current rebound in the Hong Kong stock market is more driven by global style re-balancing needs on the funding side, driving short-covering in a pessimistic position, with market sentiment in a low-emotion position shooting up for repair. In addition, GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (03986) and KNOWLEDGE ATLAS (02513) each had net purchases of 311 million and 310 million Hong Kong dollars, while Tencent (00700) faced net sales of 580 million Hong Kong dollars.