Hong Kong stocks jumped through the 26,000-point mark on Tuesday as tech shares led by Tencent (0700) rallied on AI optimism.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index soared by 640 points to finish the afternoon trading session at 26,038 points, near the highest point of the day.
Shares of Tencent surged by 10.5 percent following a Financial Times report that it is preparing to launch an AI agent for WeChat.
The Chinese tech giant could begin the compliance process as early as this month before the official launch, the report said.
In an early demo version, users simply need to swipe right on the main WeChat interface to access the AI agent's chat interface, FT said, adding that the agent can automatically invoke millions of mini-programs within WeChat to complete complex tasks on users’ command—such as finding a coffee shop and placing a drink order based on specific taste and price requirements.
The Hang Seng Tech Index also grew by 4.7 percent to 5,199 points.
Alibaba (9988) leapt 6.6 percent after launching Qwen3.7-Plus, a multimodal agent model that unifies vision and language.
Chinese food delivery giant Meituan (3690) climbed 9.3 percent following better-than-expected results for the first quarter.
Other tech firms such as JD.com (9618), Kuaishou Technology (1024), and Baidu (9888) all advanced at least 4.3 percent.
The market turnover rose to HK$373.8 billion.
In the mainland, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index was up by 0.43 percent to 4,075 points and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Component Index gained by 1.6 percent to 15,591 points.
